Naruto Shinobi Chronicles: The Beginning
by Whirlpool-Maelstrom
Summary: After failing his second graduation exam, the Hokage decides to get Naruto some help, follow Naruto has he makes new bonds and finds love. NaruSaku The unnamed character in chapter 4 is not an OC.
1. It Begins

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**Summary: After the failing the Second Graduation exam, the Hokage decides to have someone help Naruto, this is the original story, with some twists, follow the story the of Naruto and the others in Naruto Shinobi Chronicles: The Beginning.**

**Pairing: NaruSaku. In the naruto fan fiction filter I will only write NaruSaku fan fiction at least in Naruto X someone pairings, I may write other stuff but that's for later. **

**A/N: Have you guys seen chapter 458 NaruSaku might a possibility in a close future, Hell Yeah!!!**

**-X0X-**

"YOU FAIL! Now get out of here Uzumaki!" The Academy teacher yelled at the boy, not that he really cared, since there was no way that he was going to let the container of the damned Kyuubi no Yoko become a Genin. For the last Academic he had made everything possible to harm the boys growth, from not answering the boys questions in class to giving him more complicated tests than his classmates, questions that only High-level Genin and Low-level Chunnin could answer, curiously the boy was able to answer some of them, making the teacher have to erase some answers from the test sheet. And the good thing was that the Hokage didn't even suspected that the Academy teachers were making the kyuubi brat fail. "Hey! Uzumaki didn't you hear me get out of here, the Academy is no place for failures like you! NOW GET OUT OF HERE!"

The poor boy was Uzumaki Naruto, age 11, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko (not that he knew), village pariah and the greatest prankster that the village had ever seen, the boy had sun-kissed blond hair and cerulean blue eyes that showed sadness, he was wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, navy-blue sandals and had a pair of olive green goggles on his forehead.

The instructor's words struck Naruto hard, being called a failure wasn't easy, he had worked very hard to pass this test, but like the last time he had failed since he wasn't able to perform the Bunshin no jutsu, each time he tried to make a clone it would always be defective, no matter how much chakra he poured into the jutsu he wouldn't get it right. Naruto didn't know what to do so he ran and didn't even stop in the classroom; he just continued running not paying attention to the insults and laughter of his from-now-on-former classmates, during the years he spent at the academy he tried to make friends unsuccessfully, the kids normally would insult him or just ignore him.

Outside Naruto sat at his favorite spot, the swing under the tree at the entrance of the academy. Several students were already there being congratulated by their parents, some of the kids made fun of Naruto in front of their parents and these didn't even reprimand them they laughed a along with their children, other adults sent glares to the boy and the rest just downright ignored him like he didn't exist. The behavior of latter was what made Naruto seek attention, his orange jumpsuit was for that effect and the pranks he usually pulled too served to diverge attention to him, even if negative.

Naruto's stomach growled. "Hehe maybe I should go to Ichiraku's!" The boy adjusted his goggles and left to always reliable Ramen stand, the people at Ichiraku's, Teuchi and Ayame were always friendly to him, he had met them when he was four years old, after being thrown out of the orphanage for causing _trouble_ with the other children and the caretakers. After meeting them they had given him food and treated him better than most people, occasionally offering him bowls of ramen for free.

"Oi Teuchi-ossan, Ayame-nee-chan!" He called the owner of the stand and his daughter.

"Oi Naruto! What will it be?" Teuchi asked the boy.

"Miso Ramen, ok?" Teuchi smiled at him and went to work on the food, he loved making ramen for Naruto, he was his favorite not just because he frequented the stand a lot but he was also a great kid, his presence in the stand made it livelier for him, also his shop was the only place that served food to him the other place refused to serve the boy and since he was only one to serve Naruto he made sure to give the boy his best ramen. Meanwhile his daughter Ayame conversed with Naruto.

"So Naruto-Kun how was the exam? did you pass?" Ayame asked curiously. Everyone who interacted with the boy knew that his dream was to become Hokage, _"A Damn fine Hokage" _like her father said.

The boy's mood dropped a little, sadness returning to his eyes. "I failed again Nee-chan."

Ayame gave the boy a little comforting smile and ruffled his hair a little. "You'll pass next time for sure, they say third time's the charm you know! Maybe you didn't use enough chakra?" Now most people would ask how a simple waitress knew about this stuff but remember that this is a Shinobi Village so even the civilians had a little knowledge of military terms.

"I don't know Ayame-nee-chan, I can't get the jutsu right I've been doing it for two years now and I still can't get it right and every time I ask sensei for help he just ignores me. Sensei even said I am a failure, Ayame-nee-chan do you think I am a failure?" Naruto asked the brunette.

Before Ayame could answer, her father interrupted her. "Don't listen to those Bastards Naruto, you're not failure, a failure would have given up long time ago and you didn't, each time they thought you were down you got back up showed them who you are, so don't start thinking your some sort of failure boy, you're one of the kindest and most courageous people I have the pleasure of knowing, heck I still remember when you used to beat up bullies who used to pick up on the little kids, do you remember that you were six at the time. And if it helps you I believe you'll make a great Hokage I really do so don't start believing in what they say and believe in yourself OK?" The man gave Naruto is bowl.

Naruto gave the old man a huge grin. "Thanks a lot Teuchi-jiji and could you prepare me a bowl of pork ramen?"

"Coming right up boy! Coming right up!" The Ramen chef returned to the kitchen.

**-X0X-**

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage or as he is called Sarutobi-jiji or Hokage-jiji by his Grandsons, blood and surrogate respectively was having a fairly nice day, paperwork wasn't much to take care of and so he could take is time to read his student's literature aka Icha Icha Paradise. The old Hokage veteran of two shinobi wars chuckled perversely with a small blush on his cheeks as he read his little orange book. _"Jiraya you're a genius." _The Hokage was interrupted from his musings and impure thoughts by a knock on his door, hiding his book he replied for however was at the door to enter.

"Hokage-sama this is the list with these years Academy Graduates!" The Hokage's secretary a middle aged woman said as she dropped several files at the aged leader's desk.

"Thank you, Mayuri-chan please could you bring me the list of jonin available to become senseis this year!" The girl nodded and left with a quick "Hai Hokage-sama."

"_Now let's see if Naruto is here!" _The Hokage was expecting his surrogate grandson to have passed the exam this time, he really expected to hear Naruto bouncing around the village shouting from the top of his lungs that he was a ninja and that he was going to be Hokage in no time. To his disappointment the boy seemed to not have passed the exam again. Meanwhile his secretary left the list of available jonin for this season. _" Kakashi, he's not going to like this he's been requesting Naruto's team since last year, Gai I have a team with a student perfect for him Rock Lee these two are so alike that it's scary, Then there's Hayate, Genma, Anko oh I pity the kids who are going to have her as a sensei they're probably be mentally scarred for life… So many teams and only three make it to Genin." _

"Yo" A voice said from behind Sarutobi. The old man groaned.

"Kakashi ! Don't you know where the door is!" The only answer the masked man gave was one of his usual eye smiles.

"You know why I came here don't you? Tell Hokage-sama did he pass?" Kakashi asked the Hokage hopefully, it had been a great disappointment to Kakashi when he heard that Naruto failed his first exam. Now here he was hoping that the blond boy had passed the exam this time.

"Sorry Kakashi he didn't pass!" the Hokage replied sadly.

"Damn it! How could he not pass this time? Are you sure he's being taught well at the academy?" Kakashi's question didn't bode well with the Hokage.

"Kakashi are you saying that the teachers at the academy aren't good, the same teachers I handpicked myself?" Sarutobi rubbed his temples his day was all going down the drain, it had started so well but now this scarecrow of a man was questioning his choices. Seriously how could he question the teachers he chose, they were good teachers weren't they?

"I'm only saying this because the teachers might not be teaching him because of his _condition_. In my academy days the teachers were different… it was a time of war not piece like now. And I think that a little evaluation would be good." Kakashi said.

The Hokage sighed. _"Taking counsel from a jonin. Sarutobi your too old for this shit."_, "Anyway I think I need to assign Naruto a tutor during the Academy Break Time. MAYURI!!! Bring me the files of Umino Iruka and Uzumaki Naruto."

"Umino Iruka?" Kakashi questioned.

Sarutobi nodded. "Yes if there's anyone who can reach Naruto is Iruka, he's pretty good with the kids in his class, also Naruto will be in his class, since Iruka's the next up for graduation, I feel that those two might get along well since they're so alike at least in they were in their academy days. Don't get me wrong Kakashi I know you wanted to teach Naruto but I can't have one of my best jonin stop his duties to train a academy student much less Naruto, the council would have my ass for that."

Kakashi muttered something among the lines of "Bullshit" and the like.

"Anyway I'll call Iruka and Naruto here tomorrow so I can have him better trained. Now be gone you Scarecrow your stealing me reading time!" The Hokage tried to sound annoyed as much as he could.

Kakashi jumped out from the window.

"_Seriously, when is this guy going to learn to use the door." _Sarutobi thought amusedly.

**-X0X-**

**The next day –**

Naruto woke up with someone knocking on his door, he groggily went to open only to be surprised that a ANBU member with a cat mask, from the stature it could be seen that it was a woman, she seemed to have long purple hair.

"Hokage-sama requested you to meet him Uzumaki-san." The ANBU informed Naruto.

"What does jiji wants?" Naruto asked.

"Those are matters to speak with the Hokage not with me, hurry up and meet the Hokage" As soon as the female ANBU said this she disappeared in small cloud of smoke.

After a quick shower and a cup of instant ramen for breakfast, Naruto put on his usual clothes. The way to the Hokage tower was quick. The secretary motioned him to enter saying that the Hokage was expecting him.

Inside the Hokage's office Naruto saw two people, one was the Hokage himself and the second seemed to be a ninja dressed in the normal shinobi attire in Konoha, the shinobi had a hitai-ite on his forehead.

"Ah there you are Naruto-kun, me and Iruka here were waiting for you. Sit please we have things to discuss." The Hokage smiled warmly as Naruto took his seat next to Iruka.

"Naruto-kun, how have been your studies at the academy? Have they been going well?" Sarutobi intensive gaze told Naruto that he had to tell the truth.

"Well jiji, they've been going well I think!" Naruto replied nervously.

The Hokage opened a folder that was in his desk. "Your Academy records say that your grades are very low on the tests and that you can't execute the Bunshin no jutsu properly."

Naruto smiled sheepishly. "Ok maybe they're not so good but I Will still be Hokage no matter what!" The boy now had fire in his eyes. "Just you see jiji, I'll take your job soon believe it!"

"I don't doubt you Naruto-kun. Now answer me another question what have you learned from the academy Naruto? Have the teachers there taught you anything?" The Hokage asked.

The boy lowered his head. "Not really. They never answered my questions in the academy, not one of the teachers ever answered my doubts and they never helped me in the physical practices, but there was this teacher who gave me this special Taijutsu scroll, he said I was good enough so I could learn a more advanced style! Here I have it with me." Naruto gave the Hokage a green scroll. The Hokage observed it for a while before frowning.

"Naruto-kun, this is no Taijutsu scroll, this can't even be called Taijutsu." The Hokage sighed. "Seems you're worse that I had expected." He turned to Iruka. "Iruka I think we need to give Naruto a little test, to see which fields he needs to improve!"

Iruka nodded. "Hai Hokage-sama!" he looked at Naruto. "Naruto could you pleaseshow me the 3 basic jutsus that you learned at the academy? Please start with the Kawarimi."

Naruto stood up and looked around the room. He substituted himself with a box that was at a corner of the room. Iruka nodded. "Very well Naruto, now show me your henge."

At this Naruto grinned like no tomorrow. The Hokage gulped _"Damn it that smile he's going to use it! NNNNOOOOOO!!!!!"_

After making the appropriate handseals Naruto said. "**Oiroke no jutsu(Sexy jutsu)" **in his place appeared a gorgeous blond woman with blond hair in two pigtails, she looked like a mature female version of Naruto, also the girl was naked except having some clouds of smoke covering the private. Naruto blew a kiss to the men in front of him/her. After this the poor guys had a huge nosebleed. Reverting to his normal appearance Naruto muttered. "Perverts!"

Iruka and the Hokage cleaned their noses. "Now finally perform the Bunshin no jutsu please."

Chakra started flaring around Naruto, it was such an amount that it was visible, the blue force swirled wildly around the boy… then it stopped at the cry of… **"BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!!" **The result of the jutsu was hidden by a great amount of smoke, a clear trace of wasted chakra, it seemed that chakra control would be a great part of the boy's training.

When the smoke cleared the two adult in the room couldn't help but to sweat drop, there laying next to the boy were two sickly looking clones, in that instant a thought crossed the men's mind. "_WWWWWWAAAAAYYYYY too much chakra!!"_

" Why can't I get this jutsu right?! Jiji Why can't I get it right!! Tell me! Do I have to use more chakra? I still don't get it!" The frustration was noted on the boy's voice. It seemed that the repeated failings in the academy and the treatment the boy received from the rest of the village was taking its toll. The Hokage wanted to comfort the boy in front of him but Iruka beat him to the punch.

Placing his hand in blonds' shoulder, the scarred Chunnin smiled warmly at the boy. "Naruto it's not really your fault that you can't do this jutsu, and no you're not using the amount the amount of chakra needed… you're using way too much chakra. I think you may be a little too powerful to use the Bunshin, you see this jutsu use's a small controlled amount of chakra, it's a genjutsu, an illusion and with your massive amount of chakra it get's hard for you to control its release. You noted the amount of smoke it generated right?" Naruto nodded. "That smoke was the residue of the chakra that was poured in the jutsu but not used, meaning it was wasted."

"So all this time I thought I wasn't using enough chakra when I was actually using too much! Why didn't anyone tell me?" If possible the amount of frustration in Naruto increased even more. "Does this have anything to do with why people seem to hate me."

"No Naruto-kun it's not. Iruka-kun I trust that you have been able to make an assessment of Naruto's current abilities." The Hokage waited for a response as the Chunnin seemed to be thinking very deeply.

"_Wow I've never seen such an amount of chakra in a Academy student, not even Sasuke has this much chakra, the chakra capacity that Naruto has might be even bigger than mine, of course this comes with a price his chakra control sucks terribly. I will have to help him with that, also from his academy records he has very low grades at the other fields except stealth, oh boy even I know that he can be stealthy if he want too, he must have learned it by himself by pulling all those pranks and he can hide in a bright orange outfit, well that one less I have to teach him, I obviously will have to teach him Taijutsu, he seems to have a knack for Ninjutsu, I need to teach him some of the more basic subjects in three months. We'll start in the morning with physical training like in the academy, he seems to have a lot of stamina too so I can pick up a more rigorous training regime if Hokage-sama allows me, at the afternoon we'll go through the subjects taught at the academy, I'll have to separate the most important ones for him to learn since time isn't much. I should also " _Iruka nodded to himself approvingly. He soon noticed that Naruto was waving his hand in front of his face.

"Iruka-san! Iruka-san! " Iruka snapped in attention a small blush of embarrassment on his cheeks.

"Sorry about I was planning Naruto's training, I lost track of time." A nervous graced his face has he explained himself.

"You sure think a lot Iruka-san!" Naruto blurted out.

Sarutobi chuckled at the boy's antics. "Naruto-kun, Iruka-kun will be your teacher at the academy, so please give him proper respect."

The blond scratched his head and smiled. "Sorry about that… Iruka-sensei!"

Turning to Iruka again Naruto asked. "Iruka-sensei when will we begin training?"

"_He seems to be excited about this but once we start the academic stuff he'll probably get bored like the rest of the kids from class, how am I supposed to calm a ball of energy like him, I can just see that he's going to be a slacker like Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji. Heck he might even be worse than them. I'll need a way to catch his attention." _Naruto's hand was once again in front of Iruka's face.

"Stay with us Iruka-sensei!"

"We'll start training tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock." The boy grimaced at the mention of the hours.

"7 c'mon it's too early to out of bed Iruka-sensei!"

"We can always start at 6 you know"

Naruto quickly waved his hands. "No, no 7's perfect for me. Hey Jiji do you still need me for anything or can I go."

"You can go Naruto-kun and please don't pull any pranks today." The Hokage said to the prankster. As the boy left Sarutobi could have sworn he heard him mutter "Damn it."

Iruka watched him go with slight smile. "He's a lot like me when I was his age, I think we'll get along well."

"I think so too Iruka, anyway I'll be assigning you Training Ground 43, it's a discrete place so you two can train in place, since it's so close to the Forest of Death so not many people go into there. The only time that it is used is in the Chunnin Exams and occasionally by Anko. So no one will really disrupt you" The Hokage scribbled in a sheet the reservation for the Training Ground. _"I wonder what will be Naruto's reaction if he meets Anko. I pity you Naruto if you meet her… I'm really sorry I didn't notice how you were Naruto, but I hope I can help you in any way I can, this time you'll definitely become a ninja and be one step closer to Hokage. Goog luck Naruto I believe in you."_

**-X0X-**

**PLEASE READ THIS - A/N: So guys here the first chapter of Naruto Shadow Chronicles: The Beginning. Now I have a request for you guys and that is… REVIEW I need your sincere opinion, say what you liked or what you didn't, be respectful in your review and please say something not in the lines of "Please update soon!!!" Rushing me will only make me screw up or "I WWWUUUVV ur story continue pwease" say more than this please and I'll defiantly continue this story, Also I won't be holding the story hostage like a review whore but the comments might help to know what I might need change And Lastly TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF MY WRITING STYLE I KNOW I'M NOT THAT GOOD BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT TO CONTINUE the story. I'll try to improve but I'm still a little rusty since I don't have English classes for well over an year. **

**Stay Cool See ya Next Chapter Sincerily**

**Whirlpool-Maelstrom. **


	2. Training and Anko

**A/N: Hey there guys Thanks to everyone who reviewed and also to those who read, so here it is for you Chapter 2. Also THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed, alerted and favorite the story, it's you guys that give the will to continue this.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't how Naruto… soon my precious soon kukukukuku**

**-X0X-**

Training Ground 43, the closest ground to the infamous Training Ground 44 or as it is normally called the Forest of Death, one of the most brutal training grounds existent in the entire village of Konoha, so brutal that it was only used for the Chunnin exams and by a few ninja who were crazy enough to go there alone. But we're not talking the Forest of Death here. No we're here talking about Training Ground 43 and its three occupants, two of them in plain sight and another hidden watching with curiosity.

In the middle of the field was none other but Uzumaki Naruto and some ways from him was his teacher Umino Iruka. The boy was going through a standard academy kata under his teacher's watchful gaze, sweat covered the smaller figure his orange jacket long discarded, being only clad in a black T-shirt and his orange pants, the olive green goggles keeping his sweaty hair from his eyes.

As the boy flowed through the taijutsu kata Iruka asked him several questions. The objective of this exercise was to test the boy knowledge and also his focus, he couldn't stop his movement or he would be punished and while this wasn't as bad now as it was in the beginning having to do 20 pushups 10 times in a span of 10 minutes each time you stopped or got the question wrong was strenuous even for a kid with stamina levels like Naruto.

"What's the name of the Shodaime and what was his special abilty?"

"Senju Hashirama, his special ability was the Mokuton!"

"Whats the name of the Nidaime Hokage and what was he known for?"

"Senju Tobirama he was known for being able to conjure water from the humidity in the air thus making him able to cast Suiton jutsus anywhere, he was also the master of the Raijin."

"Name the five elements and their release names."

"Fire, wind, lightning, earth and water. Fire is Katon, Wind is Fuuton, Lightning is Raiton, Earth is Doton and Water is Suiton."

"Name the five major ninja villages."

"Konoha, Suna, Kiri, Kumo and Iwa,"

"What's the best ramen flavor in Ichiraku's?"

Naruto grinned. "Every flavor is good. Believe it!"

Iruka held is hand up. "Ok Naruto you can stop now." The man tossed a water tbottle to his student. "You're getting better." A month ago Naruto wasn't able to answer the questions or he would stop when Iruka made a stupid question.

In the threes one Mitarashi Anko watched the pair train, normally she wouldn't stop because of things like these, but something had made her stop she didn't know what, but it did interest her to no end. She was just taking a shortcut to the Forest of Death when she came across those two she was currently watching, she knew who the teacher was, and by the look the kid sported that was probably Uzumaki Naruto, Who else had Whiskers on their cheeks and liked to wear orange.

She had met Iruka years ago when he was still a Genin and she was apprenticed under Orochimaru, he was from a class lower than her but that didn't stop both of them from bonding, after her master's defection and subsequently discovery of her curse seal Iruka had been the only one that didn't shun her, offering a friendly smile when she needed but with the years and because of their different ranks they had drifted apart, seeing each other occasionally. So it was a nice surprise to see him, she had heard of Iruka's talent with kids, even more rumors went by because he had the "Last Uchiha" in is class, a student that most teachers would have given their soul's for. Anko didn't really understand what was the deal with the Uchiha was, everyone seemed to treat him like gold or even kami's gift to humanity and everyone took pity on the boy because he had lost his entire clan in the so called "Uchiha Massacre". Ok the boy had lost his family it was sad, but that didn't mean that he was as special as people said he was. If they wanted someone special they had the boy that she was currently looking at, Uzumaki Naruto, to Anko the boy was a hero, not that she would say that openly, she had a reputation to keep. The boy had saved the village from the fury of the Kyuubi almost twelve years ago and what did he get, glares, hatred, he was ignored, grew up alone without the love of a parent and was still kept trekking through life with that goofy grin of his when most jinchuuriki would have lost themselves to hatred and became insane killing machines, in the end she looked at the boy as a kindred spirit, both were orphans (so was Iruka) and both were shunned by the village because of something they couldn't control. She also some resemblance between the two of them, she was a lot like him when she was his age. So she took great interest in seeing those two training since she felt a connection with both of them.

"_Iruka really has knack with kids, look at the brats eyes, you can see the happiness in them…" _Her train of thought was cut when she saw Naruto running in the direction of the tree she was in. _"Shit got to get out of here." _She quickly used Kawarimi to replace herself with a leaf from another tree.

In the other tree she saw the boy, rush at the tree and climb it with his feet. _"Tree walking huh? Not bad for a kid his age, but why is he learning it before he is out the academy. Is his chakra control so bad that he has to learn tree walking early… Well duh he's a jinchuuriki, probably the fur ball inside him gave an ass load of chakra." _She reasoned, she watched intently has the kid made it halfway the tree before falling. _"Heh he's still has a long way to go."_

**-X0X-**

"Ouch!" Naruto rubbed his rear, he was a little hurt because of the fall. "Ha there's no way I'll stop here I'll climb all the way to the top, just like I'll climb through the ranks and become Hokage." Iruka and Anko smiled at hearing this. He had guts , he had the will of fire the Sandaime talked so much about, as long has Uzumaki Naruto breathed he would not back down from any challenge, instead he would meet it head on.

Naruto made another run to the tree, gathering chakra at the soles of his feet he started to climb the tree vertically again, and again he fell this time from a higher place then he had before, this time he was able to fall on his feet.

"_Gather chakra to your feet, I think this amount is good. Let's do it!" _Again he ran up the tree, going higher than before again before falling again.

"You've been going pretty well Naruto, now you need to try to keep a hold on the chakra at your feet, concentrate, I know you can do it Naruto." Iruka encouraged the boy giving several tips, but also leaving him enough space to try and learn by experience making him use his brain more.

Further attempts were met with great success as Naruto progressed more and more each passing time, if Iruka knew Naruto well from the short time he had been helping him he would have the exercise down by tomorrow, because knowing him he would probably keep going at it at night.

For two more hours Naruto trained, making progress that wouldn't be seen in a Academy student, it seemed that his headstrong attitude made him strive to become better and better.

"Oi Naruto! That's enough for today it's already noon so let's have lunch!" Iruka called.

"Can we have ramen?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto there's more food in the world than Ramen, besides you eat too much ramen, it's harming your growth and all that sodium will do more bad than good to you, you need to have a more balanced diet or you'll be short forever you know!" Iruka tried to reason with the boy, Naruto needed a better diet and hell if he wouldn't give it to him.

"PPPPPPLLLLLEEEEEEAAAAASSSSSEEEE Iruka-sensei, let's have ramen please!" Naruto was almost begging now.

"I already said no Naruto, We ate ramen yesterday, you seem like an old friend who's addicted with dango as you are with ramen." Iruka said thinking of a certain purple haired kunoichi who was closer to them then he might have thought.

"Dango? It can't beat ramen for sure, nothing in the world can beat ramen nothing!" Naruto blurted out. Bad move very bad move.

"SAY WHAT!!!" A voice rang through the field it came from the direction of one of the trees. A blur shot from that tree so quick that the two males almost didn't catch it, said blur landed right in front of Naruto in the form of a pissed off woman. Now normally this is bad, but when the said woman is Anko, bad might be a humble description. Truly Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Naruto eyed the woman in front of him, she had purple hair tied in a ponytail and brown eyes. She was wearing a khaki trench coat, under it she seemed to be dressed in a skin tight mesh shirt, mesh shorts, khaki mini skirt and black shinobi sandals and she had armored leg guards in her shins, her black hitai-ite was tied in a traditional fashion on her forehead. Naruto blushed a little at the sight of the beautiful woman.

"Who do you think you are to say that Dango is worse than Ramen!!! Dango is way better than that sludge, Dango is the food of the gods! Even kami herself eats it!" Anko houted at the boy.

Recovering from his daze, Naruto shot back. "What are you crazy? Ramen is the food of the gods not those tiny little dango thingy's!"

Anko and Naruto glared at each other.

"RAMEN! "

"DANGO! "

"RAMEN! "

"DANGO! "

"_Damn it you'll see I'll show you hehehe, I just have to disorient you!" _Naruto thought mischievously.

"RAMEN ! "

"DANGO! "

"DANGO! "

"Nice try kid but I won't fall in such a lame trick!" Anko said grinning victoriously at Naruto.

"_NNNNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!" _Naruto screamed mentally.

"Anko? What are you doing here?" Iruka asked confused.

Anko chuckled nervously rubbing the back of her head in very Naruto-esque way. "Oh hey there Iruka!"

Naruto burst out laughing while pointing his finger at her. "BUSTED!!" He yelled.

A glare from the Snake Kunoichi shut him up. "W-well you see I was going to relax a little in the Forest of Death when I saw you two training and let's say I got kind of curious you know!"

The teacher nodded. "Oh ok since when were you there? You could have shown yourself! There was no need to hide! We're friends even if we don't each other that much!"

"Well I've stumbled on you when the brat here was running his laps around the field." She told Iruka.

Suddenly Naruto went into a coughing fit. "cough cough stalker cough cough " Unfortunately for him Anko heard it. Result: He was bonked in the head.

Rubbing his new bump the blond shouted. "Hey What was that for you bitch!" And again he was bonked in the head.

Now sporting two bumps in his head, Naruto decided to keep his mouth shut. He didn't want this woman to kill more of his brain cells, that and she was strong as hell, but even after that Naruto couldn't think but sense a certain kinship with her something in her gaze that seemed familiar to him he just couldn't place what.

"Well then let's get some dango!" Without another word Anko proceeded to drag them to her favorite dango shop.

Being a spirit of contrariety Naruto was going to protest, but the bumps in his head made him think better. _"Think of your brain cells! Think of your brain cells! Think of your Brain cells!" _He repeated this mantra as he was dragged all the way to town.

**-X0X-**

The Dango restaurant was a nice place if you overlooked the scared owner and employees that Anko had threatened for refusing to serve Naruto, they had tried to throw him out saying that they didn´t serve demons. After saying this the owner had found himself pined to the wall with a kunai touching his neck and a scary kunoichi ready to use it.

It seemed this was Anko's favorite restaurant at least until the end of their meal, because Naruto doubted that they would serve Anko after her stunt. The woman was as bad as he was with ramen. She was happily munching Dango's along with red bean soup.

"So kid do you like them?" Anko pointed at the Dango stick on Naruto's hand.

"They´re not so bad. Ramen is still better but this isn't bad at all" He still liked Ramen a lot more but the dumplings were nice and after seeing Anko push a man so easily against the wall and pulling a kunai so fast that he didn't even see he didn't want to piss the scary woman off. Also she had stood up for him and that was very strange to Naruto, no one ever stood up for him, normally he would defend himself. Anko had word for word threatened to cut the testicles of the owner if he called Naruto a demon again, maybe not word for word but it was what it meant but using other words. It still bugged Naruto why Anko had done what she did.

"Say why did you defend me I can do that! I don't need anyone to do that and you probably won't be allowed to eat here anymore." Naruto inquired.

Anko stopped munching her dango for a second. "Believe it or not I know what is to be on your shoes, I won't tell you why but I think I understand how you feel, you feel lonely don't you, you feel like everyone hates you and it bothers that you don't know why. Kid just listen to me after all the shit you've been through you could easily hate everyone's guts, but you don't, you just smile, there are people who go through the same crap you go, they normally become insane yet you don't and you can smile in such a carefree way, that takes a lot of character to go through that and still be able to smile. I respect that."

Naruto just stared at Anko with a stunned expression on his face, this woman who he had just met an hour ago had just said that she understood that she understood him and she respected him for how he turned out to be. The boy pinched himself just to check if he wasn't dreaming.

Iruka chose this moment to interject. "Me too Naruto I to understand how you feel to a certain degree, you see me and Anko are also orphans we grew up without parents a part or all of our lives, I lost my parents during the attack of the kyuubi, after that I started behaving like a class clown, I wanted attention, even if it was negative I still loved it because there was no one else who would pay their attention to me… Sooner or later you'll have to grow up but for now you can still be a child and live life to its fullest.

"Iruka-sensei, Anko-san thanks a lot" He gave the adults a thankful little smile, a true smile not one of his forced ones.

"Hey if you're not eating that Dango I'll take it!"

"Hey!!" Naruto shouted as he tried to defend his Dango from Anko.

**-X0X-**

After saying goodbye to Iruka and Naruto, Anko went to the Hokage tower where she was at the moment, she had really liked the kid, he was a lot like her, both of their existences were loathed his because of the Kyuubi and hers because of her former master. So here she was with her former master's master.

"So tell me Anko-chan what is this all about?" The old man asked.

"I just met Naruto-kun and Iruka-kun when I was going to Training Ground 43." The Hokage lifted an eyebrow at the mention of Naruto-kun.

He motioned her to continue.

"Well, I really liked the kid, he's got guts and he's pretty funny to be around…" She stopped a little.

During this stop the Hokage spoke. "You feel yourself connected with him don't you? You feel like he know's what you've been through and you know what he's been through. It's good that more people accept Naruto-kun but I don't see why are you where?"

"The reason I'm here is because I want to help train the kid!" The Hokage did a double take after hearing this.

"You what? Do you know what you're asking, if this reaches the council they'll have my ass for that. And why do you want to train him?" He didn't like where this was going, the council accepted Naruto, but that didn't mean they liked him. Now one of the most infamous Kunoichi in the village was asking him to let her train Naruto. He understood that she had liked the boy but he didn't understand why she wanted to train him.

"The Kid has potential, lots of it and he has a huge chakra reserves to boot, he's going to be great in the future, he'll probably be one of the villages most powerful ninjas of not the most powerful, now while your little council chooses to pamper the Uchiha like he's Kami's gift to the earth, I see lots and lots of raw talent being wasted in that kid, Naruto could be even stronger than the yondaime in the future if trained correctly. And since no one seems to take interest in him I will with or without your consent, I'm just asking for it because that's the right thing to do. Old man I'm going to train the Future Hokage of Konoha!" Anko's last phrase caught Sarutobi by surprise. The Future Hokage, yes Naruto dreamed of being Hokage, of having everyone's recognition. He knew what to do.

Sarutobi sighed. "Anko-chan I'll let you train him but you have to promise that you won't train him like your master trained you also you must not teach him any of the jutsus Orochimaru taught you."

"I'll do my best old man but I won't promise anything, but rest assured he's not going to be trained as a weapon or a tool, that I guarantee you, he's not going to be trained to be a senseless killer."

"I believe in you Anko-chan I believe in you!"

**-X0X-**

The next day as Naruto and Iruka were met by the sight of Anko leaning on a tree twirling a kunai in her fingers.

"About time time you two showed up! I was wondering if any of you had forgotten about training!" She said to them.

"Anko? What are you doing here… again" Iruka asked her, he liked Anko a lot but it was so rare to see her these days, that it was strange for him to see her again so soon.

"Oh so now you won't be hiding, that's good leaving the life of a stalker" Naruto's grin was soon wiped off his face by the look Anko had.

"Brat! Another comment like that and I'm not going to train you!" Now this picked Naruto's interest.

"Your going to… train me?" He questioned not trusting Anko. She was like him, so she could be luring him to a trap to get back at him for the stalker comments.

Anko explained. "Yeah kid I said I liked you yesterday didn't I! Let's just say that I'm interested in your training! Now Iruka what were you teaching again?"

Iruka told her that he had been training Naruto's taijutsu and chakra control in the mornings and he was teaching some of the academy's subjects in the afternoon.

They started with Taijutsu. Anko was brutal, she didn't pull any punches, she moved like a snake, she didn't attack much, she would dodge all Naruto's strike's waiting for an opening, that in the boy's case were still a lot as his Taijutsu was still very flawed. With time Naruto started to pick some move's from Anko's Taijutsu, he would dodge his opponent and wait for a opening and then he would hit him with a strong hit and from there he wouldn't let him have time to recover as he would attack him relentlessly, of course this type of taijutsu wasn't entirely infallible, if the opponent was able to defend himself the attacker would have to wait for another opening. After seeing this Anko had tried to teach him her Taijutsu style, but wasn't able since her style needed the superior flexibility that only women had. In the end the style he was using now was usable but both Iruka and Anko saw that Naruto needed a more solid Taijutsu style, one that could make use of his use of his stocky body and that could land harder blows.

To help him with Chakra control Anko had snakes trying to bite him as he climbed the tree, needless to say Naruto got the exercise in no time.

So for the rest of the Academy break Anko would train Naruto in Taijutsu and Iruka would teach him the theoric stuff that Naruto didn't like at all. Also during this time Naruto had started to become more fit because of the training and the more balanced diet he had started to get thanks to Iruka and while the changes weren't much noticeable now they would be by the time he graduated the academy. The boy's mind was now much more keener, not having to prove himself in front of Iruka or Anko, made Naruto a slightly calmer person who would be aware of everything around him, this of course made him almost impossible to catch him when he pulled his pranks.

**-X0X-**

After the three months of training Naruto was now ready to go back to the Academy, he was better now, his Taijutsu was better, his chakra control too was better but he still wasn't able to perform the Bunshin and now he was able to hit targets properly with kunai and shuriken after Iruka had corrected the way he held them. He was still short but he didn't care. He whistled a happy tune as got dressed in his black t-shirt and orange pants, his jacket had been ruined by a Katon jutsu Anko had used in one of their all out spars, he always got his butt kicked by Anko when they had these spars, but it was undeniable that both of them had a lot of fun during those, he had started to see Anko as an older sister and such as that he had started to call her nee-chan and Anko called him otouto.

He tied his kunai holster in his right tight put his Weapon pouch on his lower back, both of them filled with a new set of training weapons he had bought the day before. He took with him his new academy textbook that Iruka had given him.

At Ichiraku's he ate a few bowl's of ramen, the owner and his daughter commenting the slight changes in him, besides not wearing his old jacket Naruto now didn't wear his goggles letting his hair fall over his eyes and making him look "cuter" as Ayame had said. Anko had told to him do that saying he should hide his eyes a little since he showed emotions through them a lot. After paying for his meal he went straight to the Academy.

Waiting for him there was Iruka who waved at him has he saw Naruto approaching. Naruto now saw the Chunnin as a father figure, someone who liked him, who believed him, someone who he wanted to protect from harm, someone precious.

Iruka too saw him differently. He saw who he really was, a lonely boy but brave boy in search of acknowledgement, he loved children, also he felt the responsibility to prepare them for the challenges they would face in the future. He would have liked to be able to teach more time to his students, he knew that only nine of them would become Genin, he hoped Naruto would be among those nine.

"_Now with who am I going to put him with? I need someone who can keep him in check during class… who… wait… yeah perfect I'll put him with her, let's just hope that he doesn't annoy her much or he'll be in trouble!" _He looked to his student, he seemed happy. _"I hope he doesn't cause much trouble in class, as long as he doesn't sleep in class like Shikamaru it will be all right I think."_

Inside the classroom the kids were talking to each about things they had done during the break. Naruto could see that a lot of girls were fawning over some boy in front, he watched attentively his new classmates.

"_It's going to an interesting 9 months." _Naruto thought as he entered his classroom.

**-X0X-**

**A/N: done guys I hope you liked this chapter, also if you have any questions please PM or leave a review. Also to set things straight the training Iruka gave Naruto was to make him academy level not to make him stronger than a Genin and to correct his flaws, Anko's training is the one that will probably make him stronger but not super strong, you'll see how Anko's (maybe) training will be now that the academy began again. PLEASE REVIEW. Stay tuned for next chapter.**

**NARUSAKU TILL DEATH!! BELIEVE IT!!!**


	3. The Academy

**Thank You to everyone who reviewed, you're the ones that makes me want to continue the story. **

**Chapter 3 – The Academy**

The kids inside the room kept talking even as Iruka entered inside the room, those who noticed quickly shut up when those who hadn't continued talking, this include a great portion of the female part of the class, Naruto could now that they were fawning over a black haired boy who had a cold aura around him.

Naruto rolled his eyes._"Fan girls, always fawning over some guy who treats them like dirt, in the last class was that Hyuuga prick Neji, now who might be this guy?" _There was at least a Hyuuga and an Inuzuka in this class, the Hyuuga a girl had their trademark lavender colored eyes, the Inuzuka boy had two fang-like red marks on his cheek.

It was a fairly varied class, most of the children were a part of a minor clan or they were sons of civilians. More than half of this class wouldn't even become ninja from what Anko had told him, only nine of them would three teams of three Genin each. _"No matter what I'll become a ninja this time! Believe it!"._

"SHUT UP AND GET TO YOUR SEATS!!!!" Iruka shouted from the top of his lungs making some of the students jump in fright. As the students began to seat themselves they noticed that their teacher hadn't entered alone, most of them looked curiously at the boy that stood next to their teacher.

"Hey! Who's the kid sensei?" The Inuzuka boy vocalized the question everyone wanted to make.

"This is Naruto, he's going to join our class so I expect every one of you treat him right ok?" He explained before turning to Naruto. "Please tell some things about yourself to the class."

"Ok, well my is Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen,nee-chan, eating dango with nee-chan, training and comparing cup ramen flavours." Naruto announced with a smile.

"And what don't you like Naruto?" Iruka asked motioning him to continue.

"Well I don't like waiting the three minutes you have to for instant ramen to be ready." After that he muttered something like "Training with nee-chan when she's in a bad mood." Iruka knew that sometimes Anko used Naruto to take out her stress, this normally would end with a very bruised or very cut Naruto or even both.

"Do you have any objectives for the future Naruto?" The scarred teacher asked again as moved his fingers to cover his ears, knowing what was to come.

"I WANT TO BE HOKAGE! BELIEVE IT!" The loud declaration made most students wince, Kiba was rubbing his ears and Shikamaru had awoken in fear.

"What the heck was that?" A boy with black in a ponytail asked in a lazy tone like he had just woken up, which he actually had. From what Naruto could see he was wearing a grey short sleeved half jacket with green lining with a fishnet shirt under it. Next to him was a big boned boy with red hair, he had swirls on his cheeks. His attire consisted of a green short sleeved jacket, tan shirt and around his neck he had a white scarf around his neck.

"Who's whiskers?" Shikamaru inquired making several students snicker at the new nickname for Naruto.

Naruto´s eyebrow twitched. " And who are _you_… Pineapple." Once again the students were snickering.

"Tsk troublesome blond." The dark haired boy replied before putting his head between his arms. He would have gone back to sleep if a piece of chalk hadn't hit him in the head.

"Don't go back to sleep Shikamaru!" Iruka sent the lazy boy a look that told that he would in trouble if he'd go back to sleep again.

"Now Naruto you will seat with Sakura. Sakura can you please lift your arm." In the front row a pink haired girl raised her hand. Naruto made way to his seat, as he approached he got a better look of the girl he was to seat with. She was very cute in his opinion, her hair was bubblegum pink, her eyes green that remembered him of emeralds and she had a large forehead that made look even cuter in the boy's opinion. She wore a red ribbon in her head, her clothes consisted of a red Eqibao dress with a white circle in the back along with dark green spandex shorts that reached to her knees, in her feet she the regular navy-blue sandals used in Konoha.

She smiled to him as he seated next to her. "Hi I´m Haruno Sakura, nice to meet you Naruto!" She extended her hand to him.

"Nice to meet you too Sakura-chan!" He said as he shook her hand.

"Oh Sakura-chan already, looks like the new kid already likes you billboard-brow, maybe you should go out with him and leave Sasuke-kun to me!" A girl in the middle row with platinum blond hair and baby blue eyes said this.

"Shut up Ino-pig!" Sakura snapped glaring at the blond girl.

Naruto looked between the two with confusion on his face as they bickered back and forth. "Billboard-brow? Ino-pig?"

A kid in the row behind him noticed it and explained, it was the same kid with the red marks on his face. "Ino the blond up there calls Sakura billboard-brow because of the size of her forehead, Sakura here calls Ino Ino-pig because of her name, by the way I'm Kiba…" There was a sudden movement inside his jacket and a white puppy popped out, the puppy barked a greeting to Naruto. "And this is my pal Akamaru."

"Nice to meet you guys" Naruto gave his trademark grin as he scratched Akamaru's head. _"Pink hair, Large forehead… Billboard brow…"_

_Flashback-_

_A six year old Naruto happily strolled in the local park, the Hokage had just told him that he was going to be enrolled in the Academy because of his knack for Taijutsu, the Hokage had said that his Taijutsu Whatever that was very good for a six year old. He had been the winner of a small tournament held at the pre-school where he had learned to read and write, in that tournament he had fought and won against kids who were two years older than him at least. Another reason to enroll early in the academy was that the Hokage wanted him to know how to defend himself better. He had been so happy that he nearly spent hiswhole weekly allowance buyimg ramen at Ichiraku's._

_However his stroll soon stopped as he caught a group of boys who seemed to be about four years older than him, of course this didn't seem to bother the boy. What bothered him was that they seemed to be picking on a girl who was on the ground crying. The young Naruto noticed that she had pink hair like a bubblegum he had thought with a chuckle. _

_The boys were calling her names like "Forehead girl", "Pink Freak" and "Billboard-brow". The leader a purple haired boy kept kicking her dirt, dirtying her clothes and her face. The poor girl was so scared that she hadput her arms in front of her so she could protect herself from the dirt._

"_No please stop, Kaa-san is going to be mad at me!" She cried._

"_Oh my kaa-san is going to be mad at me. Because I'm a freak and have a forehead the size of the Hokage mountain!" They kept taunting her on and on until Naruto had enough. Having lived on an orphanage until he was four Naruto had gone through something like that until he had started to fight back even if he was only four. So this sight was not a good one to Uzumaki Naruto savior of cats and little girls._

"_Hey what are you doing you meanies!" He said to them. _

_Some of them turned to him and sneered. "Go away little brat or then.."_

"_Or then what!" The blond challenged._

"_Then what? You squirt watch how you talk to me!" The leader roared at the smaller._

_Naruto's small eyebrow was twitching. "Squirt, WHO'RE YOU CALLING A SQUIRT!!!!" Naruto grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it to the leader's face._

_Now the leader was angry he glared at Naruto before yelling."GET HIM."._

_Seeing himself in trouble again the only thing he could think of… run._

_The pink haired girl stared in wonder as the boy who had defended her took off being chased by the older boys._

_Flashback end._

"I know you were that little girl that I saved from bullies a few years ago… well, kind of…" Everyone around Naruto looked at him strangely.

Sakura stopped bickering with Ino and looked at Naruto. _"What?"_, **"See told you it wasn't Sasuke-kun!"**, _"Who asked you and so what if it wasn't Sasuke-kun, that doesn't means that he isn't the one for me!", _**"Shannaro! Sasuke-kun is the one for us!"**.

"See forehead he's already saved you, just go out with him and leave Sasuke-kun to the one he truly loves." Ino said.

Sakura blushed a little at the mention of Naruto saving her. _"I'll have to thank him later for saving me from those bullies."_

Around the classroom several shouts of "Sasuke-kun is mine!", "Keep your hands from Sasuke-kun!" and others like these. Iruka who wanted to start the class was rapidly losing his patience.

Those like Sasuke and Shino knew what was to come as they saw Iruka make handseals. "BE QUIET!!" He shouted using his so called demon head jutsu making several students yelp.

"Now as I was saying this is your last year at the academy…" Most people started to lose their concentration as Iruka gave another of his boring lectures.

Naruto was starting to doze off, three months of lectures had been more than enough for him, as his eyes felt heavier and heavier he felt a sharp pain in his ribs.

"Ack!" He rubbed the spot where he was elbowed by none other than Sakura.

"Pay attention!" She replied sharply to him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Iruka smiled a little, it seemed that putting Naruto with Sakura had been a good idea, she wouldn't let him sleep through his lectures and with a little luck he would break her from her fangirl fase. He hated seeing so much potential going to waste because of a schoolgirl crush.

For another two hours Iruka lectured his class, on how they would become ninja of the leaf and that it was a different world from the Academy and so on. Because of Sakura Naruto had to listen to the whole lecture, he saw that Sakura listened it without surrendering to sleep, it seemed that Iruka's soporiferous effect didn't affect her at all.

The torture finally came to an end when Iruka said that they were going outside so he could make an assessment of how they were in terms of skill. His assistant Mizuki was with him this time glaring at Naruto from time to time with Iruka seeing him.

They began by doing a small workout consisting of running laps around the training ground and a few sets of pushups and sit-ups. Naruto with stamina had no problem doing this with his stamina, he also noticed that the raven-haired boy that the girls seemed to be fawning over earlier didn't seem winded. Sasuke was his name. He noticed that some of the girls were looked to be tired, like for example Sakura that was breathing a little more deeply than most girls. Ino and the Hyuuga girl were the ones who seemed to be better. _"Good that nee-chan didn't see them they would be in real trouble if nee-chan saw them! This is why most people don't respect Kunoichi!" _He shook his head in disapproval.

After letting them rest a little they started the evaluation. It seemed they would start with target practice.

"Naruto since you're new to class you'll start first." Mizuki, Iruka's assistant said. Naruto was able to see the look on his face, it seemed that Mizuki might make his life complicated in the academy.

Meanwhile Mizuki, smirked to himself, from what he knew the boy had a bad aim so he looked forward to make the boy look like a fool in front of the class.

Iruka instructed him to begin with the kunai. He didn't say were so Naruto tried to remember the points where Iruka had told him to hit during the three months he had spent training with him and Anko.

Images of Anko teaching different ways of throwing a kunai and how to apply more strength to said throw. He held the kunai how she had taught him. He threw it.

The students who saw the way he grabbed the kunai expected him to miss alas they were surprised by the speed it was thrown and the sound it made in contact with the wood. The kunai had entered deeper than they had expected, half of its blade had sunk into the dummy, right on the center of the dummy's head. Several kunai were thrown after that all of them hitting the supposed vital spots of the wooden dummy. Following this were shuriken that hit various spots in the dummy's arms. Most students snickered at his supposed miss. To a more schooled ninja those points in the arms were several major tendons that if cut could disable ones capacity to use said limb.

The students that understood what those points were looked curiously at Naruto, they were Sasuke, Shino and Sakura. Sasuke being from the clan he was had access to an advanced knowledge of the ninja arts since he was young, so he knew what a hit like that could do. Shino too had been imparted this kind of knowledge, the quiet Aburame's were not to be underestimated. Sakura being very studious (When she wasn't chasing after Sasuke) had studied a good part of this year's subjects.

"Seems like you missed the shuriken a little bit no?" Kiba said as the others burst out laughing.

"He didn't! Those Shuriken hit several points in the arms, those points are tendons or joints, hitting one of those points will leave the entire limb useless, there are similar points in the legs too isn't it Iruka-sensei?" This statement came from Sakura, many of the students stared at her with wonder while others snorted at her.

Iruka beamed at this. " Yes it is Sakura, Thanks for pointing it." One of the reasons he liked Sakura was because she was very smart and she was one of the few that paid attention to his lectures, it only disappointed him that she was so smart but couldn't see how foolish she was behaving when chasing Sasuke.

Returning to near the rest of his classmates, Naruto watched the rest of his classmates' progress with their evaluations. He noticed that Sakura had very good aim but her movements lacked strength and seemed very mechanical like she was doing it exactly she had been taught.

"Now we'll assess your skill at Taijutsu, we'll be having various spars so everyone will pair with someone. Now let's start Sasuke will be with Shino…" The two stoic boys nodded. " Kiba you will be with Naruto."

"Get ready to have your ass handed to you Naruto." Kiba said with a cocky smile on his face.

"In your dreams Kiba in your dreams."

Soon after they were divided into pairs, the first fight began, it seemed that Sasuke and Shino weren't evenly matched, Sasuke seemed to always have an edge, but that didn't mean that Shino was bad either were one had more skill the other was more resourceful using everything to his advantage. During the fight the girls shouted words of encouragement to Sasuke, if they effect or not, Naruto didn't know but he thought that maybe not as it seemed that Sasuke didn't care about anyone but himself. Their spar followed for about five minutes before Iruka told them to stop.

Nodding at them the two boys returned to their place, the next pair Naruto and Kiba took their places, Kiba left Akamru in the sidelines. Both of them slipped into Taijutsu stances, Naruto in an academy one and Kiba in one from his family.

"Ready!... Go!" Iruka shouted. Both boys ran to each other, kiba was the first to strike, a punch that was dodged in a very dexterous way, each time Kiba tried to hit him he would in the same way.

From the sidelines their classmates looked at Naruto strangely. "Why isn't he attacking?" some said. "Is he afraid?" others wondered.

Shikamaru who was watching attentively replied. "He's waiting for an opening. It seems Naruto doesn't have a set style of taijutsu, it's more of a mix than a real style and he seems a little awkward with it. As I was saying he's waiting for an opening and once kiba makes a mistake he'll be in trouble that he will."

Back to the spar, Kiba was infuriated, he was trying to hit the shorter boy but he couldn't get him as he was always dodging. His already wild blows were becoming even wilder and wilder, also wider and that was what Naruto wanted.

He let Kiba think he had been able to get him. "Gotcha!" He had said smirking at Naruto. The smirk was soon wiped off his face as Naruto grabbed his arm with his left hand and slammed his right elbow in Kiba's gut, not stopping there Naruto threw Kiba over his shoulder.

The Inuzuka wasn't expecting this from a moment to another the boy in front of him had gone from defensive to offensive. _"Now this is getting interesting!" _He mentally smirked; he had let the blond mess with him making him lose his focus.

Not one to leave people waiting Naruto, rushed quickly at Kiba catching still slightly groggy from his fall, Naruto assaulted him mercilessly with a flurry of punches. Kiba tried to defend himself the best he could but some punches got through.

"See what I told you! In a moment the roles completely changed, now kiba's the one in defense." Shikamaru said as they watched naruto jump over Kiba's head and quickly deliver a swipe in his legs, making the Inuzuka boy fall. Iruka chose this moment to end the spar.

"Very good both of you!" Iruka congratulated them as they returned to their places, most students were still amazed what they had seen, Naruto had completely changed the outcome of the spar in a single moment and many were now eying him warily.

**-X0X-**

Back to the classroom Naruto took his place next to Sakura, Naruto had seen her spar and again she almost moved mechanically, like she had memorized the Taijutsu style, from what he could see she didn't rely much on instinct and that probably get her killed someday. It seemed that she relied a lot on her mind, which was a very good one, from what he could see Sakura was very intelligent. She had answered almost every question that Iruka had made to the class. He knew some of the answers too but right he was focused more on his stomach that was demanding food.

They were now showing they're 3 basic jutsus. And Naruto still couldn't do the Bunshin correctly, he groaned, he had better chakra control now, but that jutsu was still impossible. Once again he watched Sakura, she had done a perfect henge, her kawarimi had been very good too and Bunshin again had been perfect. Unlike him she wasn't surrounded by big clouds of smoke like him that meant that she had good chakra control.

"_So much potential being wasted, if she trained some maybe she could become… maybe she could train with me, I wouldn't mind training with her at all! But first I'll have to break her from that fan girl fase of hers… Oh man how am I going to do that?" _In his head he had started to run several scenarios he could use to break Sakura from that silly crush. While doing this Naruto didn't notice that Iruka was calling him.

"Naruto… Naruto… NARUTO!" The boy snapped in attention.

"I-Iruka-sensei!" He said nervously.

"I was calling you to come here demonstrate your 3 basic justsus."

Naruto nodded as he prepared to make the jutsus, like three months before when he made them in front of Iruka he made the henge and the kawarimi perfectly but the bunshin…

"**Bunshin no justu!" **Naruto cried as the chakra swirled around him, he was using far much less chakra than he had ever used in this jutsu, still after the cloud of chakra smoke dissipated, only two clones appeared, two sickly looking clones.

Around the room most students laughed at Naruto's expense.

"Now now, don't laugh at your classmate! Does anyone at least know why Naruto couldn't perform the jutsu?" Iruka asked the class.

"Because he sucks!" pointed a student in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Wrong, anyone else…" Iruka turned his gaze at Naruto, who had his head down, he smiled the boy sadly.

"It seemed to me that Naruto-san used too much chakra, as it was possible to see it around him, also I believe that Naruto-san's chakra capacity may be high for a jutsu like the Bunshin that requires a small amount of chakra." The one who said this was Aburame Shino.

Iruka smiled at this. "Yes very well Shino! It's true Naruto has way too much chakra for a delicate jutsu like the Bunshin, this is the reason why he can't perform it." He noticed several boys looking jealously at Naruto. While the boy beamed in happiness "But that his also why his chakra control is so bad, the bigger the amount the less control you have over it, also if you have no control you'll waste a lot of chakra. Now women are born with an inferior chakra capacity than men." The females of the room glared at Iruka. "But because of it they have a better control of their chakra, thus wasting less. Remember than in a fight it's not the ninja with more chakra that wins it's the one that knows how to use it more wisely and doesn't waste a single ounce of it."

Wondering about what their teacher had told them the students kept quiet for the rest of class until the lunch bell rang.

**-X0X-**

Sakura had been looking for Sasuke since the beginning of lunch, having not much success in that. She and every other fan girl. She had looked everywhere but it seemed that the Uchiha didn't want to be found. As she continued looking, she passed by a sight that made her stop. There in the old creaking swing stood Naruto, alone, a cup of instant ramen on his hands, his face showing delight as he ate the noodles.

Normally she would have continued but something made her stop. The memory that that was the boy who had saved from bullies once when she was little.

"_Well I could keep him company it's not like me or the others are going to find Sasuke-kun anyway!" _Sakura thought to herself.

Approaching him she asked. "Why are you here all alone Naruto?"

Looking up from his meal Naruto stared at the girl before replying. "I don't really know anyone and I don't think most people here like me, they probably think I'm just an idiot who wants to Hokage!"

"Why would they think that?" Sakura inquired him, the boy's declaration was strange to Sakura. He was a little loud that was sure but he hadn't done anything to anyone not to like him.

"I don't know Sakura-chan, It's always been like this since I can remember." He said sadly. "No one ever played with me when I was little, when I tried to make friends with other kids they ignored me and whenever they played ninja they wouldn't let me play with them. It's always like that, they must think I'm some kind of freak."

"Well I don't think that!" Sakura said to him.

Naruto smiled as he touched her forehead with his hand. "Your different from the others."

She looked at him confused. "How am I different from the others?"

He gave her one of his foxy grins. "People where always picking on you because of your forehead right?" She nodded. "Well the reason your forehead is like that is…" He stopped a little.

"_What what?" _What was the reason, what was Naruto trying to say?

"That your really smart!" Sakura blushed. She knew she was smart, her teachers said it and her mother said it too, but being acknowledged by someone her age was different.

"And you're very pretty too!" Again she blushed; she always was convinced she was a very plain looking girl. The only person who said she was pretty was her mother and what mother didn't say that her child was pretty.

Calming, herself, she picked up her bento and started eating. The time flew by as the two talked, Sakura giggled at the mention of several pranks that Naruto had pulled. Her smile showed how she was at the moment, a smile that was rare to be shown. A real smile. A child that belong to a child.

The bell rang and the two prepared to head back to class.

"Naruto?"

"Yeah?" He responded without looking at her.

"Thank you!"

He felt something wet against his cheek.

A kiss.

**-X0X-**

**A/N: TADAH Third chapter is done, Hope you liked it.**

**REVIEW YOUR LORD COMMANDS TEE. And stay tuned for the next chapter.**

**Whirlpool-Maelstrom.**


	4. Watching from the shadows

**A/N: thanks to everyone who reads this story, added alerts to it or me and those who put me and the story in their favorites**

**To Jnottle and everyone who may be interested, in the matter of Kakashi and any other character you may be assured that I won't bash it, first Bashing shows how shallow you are, second bashers always exaggerate the behavior of the character they bash. And people who bash Kakashi and Jiraya SHAME ON YOU, Kakashi as stated on the show had a hard life, he lost his mother when he was young after that he lost his father who was an idol and role-model to him, then it was Obito followed by the disappearance of Rin and in the end he lost the Yondaime who might have been like a father to him, now tell me a guy who goes through that deserves respect or not. You know the answer. And btw you guys Kakashi bashers might be bashing the series most popular character now tell me how bad is that. Finally Jiraya bashers have you ever heard of comical relief, also he was protecting the village were his godson lived and him in the process, doing some other stuff in the way but hey the guy has his urges, don't judge him for that anyway enjoy the chapter.**

**Chapter 4 – Watching from the shadows**

"Beer… check."

"Snacks… Check."

"Icha Icha's new volume… Check and Double check." In a small apartment in Konoha's Shinobi district, the silver haired masked ninja Hatake Kakashi prepared himself to spend his days-off reading the newly released Icha Icha Paradise II. The table in front of him was filled with unopened beer cans, several assorted snacks and the most important part his little orange book he loved so much. He stretched himself snapping several of his joints, he had come from an A- Ranked mission two days ago. An infiltration mission in the border of Kumo, for five days he led a three man team, they were to gather information about troop movements that were happening in that region, everything had gone alright until the last day, in the last day they stumbled in a patrol of Kumo-nin, that of course quickly escalated into a fight. One of his teammates died during the fight being hit by a Raiton jutsu in the heart, painless but still terrible, he and the other two Konoha-nin quickly dispatched the rest of the patrol, but in the end they still lost their comrade, another name in the memorial stone, another life given for the Village. In the end the mission couldn't be considered a success or a failure, after arriving Konoha he had been berated by Konoha's jonin commander Nara Shikaku for nearly screwing up the mission that could as well in case Kumo found cause a war, but the worse was having to inform the deceased's family. Yesterday the man's name was added to the Memorial Stone. The Hokage had given him a few days off. As he reached to pick up his little book, he noticed that it wasn't in his table anymore.

"I still wonder how you can read this smut." A voice behind him said.

"That's not smut, it's a very well written piece of literature!" He glanced at the figure behind him.

The Figure behind him was clad in black standard issue ANBU cloak, its face was covered by a white porcelain mask. It was a powerful ninja, the aura around it seethed with power bigger that even Kakashi's. This figure however was now nothing more than a shadow of the third Great Shinobi War. During the time of the war its name brought almost the same amount of fear that the Yellow Flash had brought. Still it gave a sense of security to Kakashi.

"Are you here to check on him again?" Kakashi asked.

The figure nodded. "Yes I'm here to check on him again. Have done you what I told you to do, have you suggested that Naruto be helped before returning to the Academy like I told you too?"

"I have done everything as you told me too. Naruto his now in the same level as his peers." Kakashi said to the figure that was now in front of him.

"His capacities?" It inquired.

"He improved in all fields excluding Genjutsu which seems that he has no talent for, his chakra control is better, he already knows the tree climbing exercise still he is incapable of performing the Bunshin well, it seems that he has too much chakra for it. His taijutsu has been corrected and has some special _improvements, _his performance with the academic style of Taijutsu seems a little awkward to say the least, and he needs a more solid style that can make a more efficient use of his stocky build." It didn't take a much trained eye to see the changes in Naruto and Kakashi had caught them almost immediately.

Again the figure nodded. "Who trained him?"

"Umino Iruka his current teacher at the academy and Mitarashi Anko!" Kakashi expected an outburst from the figure and it came.

"Mitarashi? You surely don't mean Orochimaru's former apprentice do you" the figure said harshly.

The silver haired man gave the figure one of his U shaped eye-smiles. "It's her alright, she seems to have taken a liking for Naruto and vice-versa, she has been giving him some training in her free days. Weapon handling, Taijutsu, Survival and Speed and Strength training. Don't worry she hasn't been teaching him anything her master taught her. He's safe with her you have my word."

The black cloaked figure sighed. "I'll take your word, Kakashi-kun."

"So tell me what's all this for, Kakashi-kun ? Tough mission?" the Figure asked still holding Kakashi's book.

"You could say that!" That was his answer.

The figure tossed the book back to Kakashi.

The two stood there just staring at each other for awhile. "Have you any news about the Akatsuki?" he asked.

"According to my informant they'll only move next year, and even so they'll only be scouting for the locations of the nine Jinchuuriki. Then after that they will begin to snatch the Jinchuuriki, it seems they are still gathering the resources needed to extract the bijuu from their hosts, Iwa already lost one of its jinchuuriki, the Yonbi if I'm right, my information also says that one of their members left the organization some time ago and had made them have to postpone their agenda for a while. The curious thing about this group is its composition, their supposed to be composed of nine S-class missing-nin." The figure said to Kakashi in a very serious tone.

"S-class!! Nine S-class missing-nin! What are their aims, what do they want to do with the bijuu." This was bad very bad, Who knew what they would do with the bijuu in their possession, it seemed there was a storm coming, a very bad storm and Kakashi knew he would be involved, his sensei's son was one of the targets, there was no way he would stay idle with something like that about to happen in a few years.

"What do you think they want Kakashi-kun, they want to dominate the world, they want immortality, they want to cause conflict. Each one of its members seems to have different reasons to have joined the group. But we still have time, as long as we're prepared everything will be alright… so I hope." The figure's tone was now somber.

"What will you be doing?" Kakashi asked the figure. Kami blessed them, they'll need all the help they can get when Akatsuki comes.

"I still have business to take care. Some of my enemies are still alive and someone needs to take care of them. Also I must gather more information on Akatsuki, we only dispose of one year before they start moving and I'll be damned if they catch Naruto. There's no way they'll catch me or Naruto unprepared. Still my next meeting with my informant his months away." The figure stopped a little before resuming. "I have a bone to pick with Gatou in Wave. I'll come back to check on Naruto in a month's time…" The figure prepared to leave.

"Farewell Kakashi-kun!"

"Farewell… Senpai!"

**-X0X-**

After leaving Kakashi's apartment the mysterious figure went to yet another apartment this one belonging to none other than Uzumaki Naruto. Casting a small Genjutsu on itself the Figure entered the apartment through a window carefully not to knock one of Naruto's plant vases.

The Figure looked around the boy's room for awhile. Going through his dresser, seeing the kind of clothes the boy had. He seemed to only have a few sets of black t-shirts and a pair of bright orange pants, folded in the dresser was also a bright orange jacket that by the looks of it seemed completely ruined, worn out and with several cuts.

In the bed table was a picture of a blond four year old child with an old man in white and red robes. The figure picked up the picture and looked at its back. October tenth. _"Naruto's Birthday." _The Figure thought sadly. _"He's been so lonely all this time." _

The drawers on the kitchen were filled with cups of instant ramen. _"Oh ramen! I haven't had ramen for ages I hope he doesn't mind me taking one of his cups. Which flavor to choose…" _The figure picked a cup of instant beef ramen. Rummaging through the boy's fridge the figure grabbed various cartons of milk that were spoiled among other items. "_He needs to clean up more who knew what could have happened to him if he drank that spoiled milk."_

"Seems the brat isn't here yet!" A loud feminine voice rang through the apartment. The figure quickly cast a camouflage jutsu, expertly masking its presence scent and all.

"Guess I'll just lie down for a bit!" The voice said again. After a few more minutes some light snores came from the common room. Entering the room the Figure saw a purple haired woman sleeping in the couch. _"This must be Orochimaru's former apprentice, Mitarashi Anko."_

For about an hour the figure stood there patiently going through the boy's stuff. The sound of a key made the Figure stop. The door opened. From it came a boy with spiky blond hair and sky blue eyes. The figure recognized the boy instantly. _"Naruto." _

Naruto who had just entered groaned at the sight of Anko sleeping on his couch. Getting a mischievous smile on his face he approached the sleeping Anko.

"WAKE UP!" He yelled in Anko's ear.

Yelping the purple haired woman grabbed a kunai and started looking around the room. While Naruto was rolling on the floor with laughter.

He pointed at her. "You should have seen your face, Hahaha." Naruto continued laughing at her.

The Figure who was watching the interaction between the two had to had to suppress a chuckle.

Unfortunately for Naruto Anko didn't think what he had done was much funny, since she promptly bonked him in the top of the head. "That's not the way to wake up a lady you brat!"

Getting a quizzical look on his face Naruto asked. "Where is she, the lady?"

A murderous look crossed Anko's face. The figure was now getting very amused at those two, its worries about Anko disappearing minute by minute.

"Brat! Run if you want to live!" And he did for five minutes Anko chased Naruto around the apartment, when she finally caught him she gave him a very hard noogie.

Soon Naruto's curiosity got the best of him. "Say nee-chan what are you doing here?"

Anko picked up at this. "Thought you would never ask, well brat the weekend is coming and since I know you don't have anything to do I want to know if you wanted to go in a camping trip? Do you?"

"Camping trip? Sure where to?" He asked.

"The forest of death!" Anko said in a cheerful voice, way too cheerful for the other two's liking.

Naruto paled a bit. "The f-fo-rest of death?" He asked in an uneasy voice.

"Yup I thought it would be nice for you to get some survival training there! Believe me You'll be a survival expert in no time! And don't worry I know a nice place there where you can get your regular training done with the bonus of not having people stumbling upon you like last time. So what do you say?" Anko had a grin on her face that made Naruto feel even more uneasy.

The Figure was deep in thought. _"The Forest of Death?!? Isn't that training ground 44, she's trying to take him to one of the most Dangerous places in Konoha. It's not as dangerous as the ANBU Training grounds… but Naruto is so young. It's still too dangerous for an Academy student like him."_

"Hey otouto don't tell anyone I told you this but the second phase of the Chunin Exams is held there! So you know you'll have an edge over the rest of the guys." Anko said to him trying to convince him, she really wanted to spend some time with him, but she didn't know what to do, she hoped he would go with him her, if she could do other things besides training with him she would but she doubted he would find a tea ceremony fun.

"Really! Count me in! Believe it!" He said smiling, the prospect of having an edge on the Chunin exams was too tempting for Naruto.

The purple haired woman embraced the boy. "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Now let's go get your things packed." She then proceeded to drag the boy to his room.

"_The chunin exams are held there? They used to be at Akihabara!" _the still camouflaged figure relaxed, reasoning that Naruto would alright if the chunin exams were held there and he was in the company of a senior ninja. _"I have to leave, I still have things I must get out of my way before we meet Naruto. Soon." _The figure deactivated the camouflage jutsu slowly so it wouldn't call the attention of the purple haired Kunoichi. The Figure reached inside its cloak and pulled out a thick green scroll and left it on top of the table were those the other two occupants could easily see it. _"Good luck Naruto." _ With this the Figure silently left through the kitchen's window.

**-X0X-**

"Are you sure you have everything?" Asked Anko at her blond little brother.

"Yes nee-chan I'm sure I have everything!" Naruto answered in an annoyed voice. "You can be such a mother hen sometimes you know that."

"Watch it brat!" She said threateningly.

As both were leaving Naruto's apartment something caught the boy's attention, it was a thick green scroll, a thick green scroll. He didn't recall having scroll's that big, he went to pick it up. He unrolled the scroll and gasped.

"Whoa! Nee-chan check this out!" He showed the scrolls contents to her.

"Baka!! You should given the scroll to me first! Imagine it was booby trapped!" She snapped at him before taking a look at the scroll

Anko's eyes widened when she gazed at it. She whistled. "A Taijutsu scroll? Huh! Check it out brat! I've never seen a Taijutsu scroll with such clear instructions, whoever wrote this must have been a real master! And this style I don't know but I think it suits you!" Suddenly a grin came over her face. "I don't know but I think this Camping Trip is going to be even better. Take the scroll with you otouto were gonna start training with that as soon as we are set up in the forest!"

"Sure just let me get me some ramen and we'll go!" Anko Stared at him like he had grown a second head.

"Please tell me you're kidding right?" She said.

"Uh no!" Anko bonked him as a result.

"We're not having any food with us! There is plenty of food we can hunt in the forest. We'll be fine." She replied to him.

"Hunting? Seems cool!" Naruto grinned, he was going to have a good time in the forest.

They left the apartment together, walking through the crowd in the streets, Naruto told Anko of the latest prank he had pulled on Iruka, he told her how when Iruka had told him to do the henge he had used the Oiroke no jutsu on him again, making him suffer a small nosebleed, Anko laughed at the poor scarred chunin's expense, she couldn't help but laugh since she knew the true purpose of the jutsu, It was an infallible weapon against perverts and almost every male, that saw it, she had also told him not to show it in front of women or he could be in deeper trouble that he signed for.

"Tell you what otouto if we find the time, I'll give you a little hand with jutsu of yours!" She winked at him as she said this.

Naruto looked at her confused for a while. After that he just shrugged and kept walking along with her.

Training ground 44 was a terrifying place on the outside, were you could hear the sounds of the various predators that lurked within. On the outside it was even worse, for more than one time Naruto was almost bitten by a snake, Anko had assured him that they weren't poisonous but still the places evil aura was getting in his nerves.

Anko noticed this. "Relax otouto this place isn't so bad after you get used to it, just remember respect the forest and those who live in it and it will all be fine, also the Forest doesn't get much worse than this for the time being, Now be here during the chunin exams and the least you'll have to worry will be the inhabitants of the forest, believe me if you think this is bad just wait."

Naruto started looking around the forest as they continued their way, on the forest's ground you could notice some old kunai. It seemed that this hadn't been used in at least two or three years.

"Nee-chan why do those kunai look so old? You said that the exams are held here but this place seems like it wasn't used in years! Why is that you're not trying to kill me or something are you?" He asked looking at Anko warily.

"The reason this place seems unused it's because the exams haven't been held in konoha for two years, they've been held in Suna, Who's said to have an even more difficult test than ours, well at least for foreign shinobi, the village that held's the tests always has an advantage over the participants of the other villages. These exams are like a little war between Genin." She explained him.

Then she suddenly stopped. "Otouto?"

Naruto who had stopped, looked at her. "Nee-chan?"

"Naruto promise me you will be careful when you take the test." Anko's voice betrayed her seriousness, her usual mischievous demeanor gone.

"Nee-chan I promise! And I never break my promises that's my way of the ninja! Believe it!" He said giving her a thumbs up.

Anko grinned and both of the continued on their way.

**-X0X-**

The place where they would be staying was a secretive glade that was surrounded by trees, near it ran a river. The place was also very well lit. On the center of the glade were marks of a campfire that seemed pretty recent.

"Welcome to my special place, I come here once in awhile! I found it while I was still a Genin, I used to come here to train in secrecy so no one would spy on me. You're looking at the place where I trained for the third phase of my chunin exams!" She said smirking to Naruto.

"Now I remember something I never asked what your rank was? Did I?" He rubbed the back of his head, grinning sheepishly at her.

"You didn't but if you want to know I'm a Tokujõ!" She told him.

"Tokujõ? What kind of rank is that!" He said not being aware of the older ninjas slang.

Anko sighed. "Brat Tokujõ is the short definition for Tokubetsu jonin!"

"Tokubetsu jonin? In know what is a jonin but Tokubetsu jonin never heard of it!" He said.

Anko suppressed a groan. "Tokubetsu jonin are jonin who are specialized in some kind of field instead of all around like normal jonin. It also means that unfortunately we are under them during missions. Also between the normal jonin there are some that stand out and are called elite jonin, even if it's not a real rank, I remember being on a few missions with one, he was such a pervert always reading his little orange book and he was always late" She shook her head at the memory of a certain silver haired man.

At his apartment Kakashi sneezed. "Someone must talking about me maybe some pretty lady hehe!"

Naruto dropped his things on the ground and took out his new Taijutsu scroll. He saw Anko take a scroll from her weapon pouch and start unsealing various items they would use.

She suddenly tossed him something heavy.

"Hey what's this?" Questioned Naruto as he inspected what he had been hit with, it seemed to be two pairs of bracers, or at least he thought they were bracers. There were various hard points in them were you could put something. They seemed to be a little old with was some snake motif on them, their color was dark gold almost coopery, giving them a very cool look.** (Sorry for this comment but to me they seem very cool.)**

"Those are weights, the bigger ones are for your legs while the smaller ones are for your forearms. I used them for quite awhile during my Genin days." She explained him.

After helping him put them and explaining him how to do it Anko unsealed various metal slabs some thicker than others and began attaching them to the weights, the slabs had seals on them that would make them heavier if you focused chakra on them. She put four slabs in each weight. The slabs used on the arms were heavier than the ones on the shins so the user could walk without problem, half a kilogram for each leg slab and a kilogram for each arm one. Naruto was silent through the whole thing he was going to retort that he didn't want a set of old weights but after hearing her say that they used to belong to her and that she was giving them to him he decided to keep his mouth shut because the of gift she was giving him. It was a sentimental one.

"And take these too!" She passed him two black armbands that covered his entire forearm. "I bought these for you so you can hide your arm weights. No one will know how you are getting stronger!"

As Naruto put them on he asked. "And what if want to help my friends getting stronger, can I tell them?" The term friends was not very correct, he only had one friend in class and that was Sakura, he spoke well with Kiba but he wasn't sure if he could call him a friend yet, unlike Sakura he didn't keep him company during lunch and he definitely didn't help him with the things he didn't understand in class. Like he had predicted the kids on class had started to ignore him and some were rude to him the next day, two weeks had passed since that.

"Then just keep an eye out to who is around ok? Now it's time to get your butt moving, go to the river and bring stones about the size of your fist, I'm going to pick up some wood so we can make a fire." With that they went their ways, fifteen minutes later they met again, Naruto had no idea that finding stones with a certain size was so hard.

After making that they started their training, Anko instructed Naruto to run laps around the area and do a light workout so he wouldn't be tired because of the weights. She began teaching Naruto the basic Taijutsu moves that were on the scroll. They did this for about two hours before Anko announced that they needed to catch some fish from the river, before there was no light. Anko left her trench coat behind, when they arrived to the river bank Naruto started searching for a spot for them to fish. Behind him Anko started to take her clothes off, she was taking her mesh shirt when Naruto turned to her, he blushed at the sight of his Nee-chan striping.

"_She's your nee-chan! Bad Naruto! Bad Naruto!" _ he berated himself mentally.

Anko was looking at him with a mischievous grin. "You shouldn't be ogling me otouto! Incest is wrong you know." She loved teasing him his reactions were too funny, and all this would help him later in case some seductress tried to seduce him he wouldn't be vulnerable to their charms, Anko had done things like those one or two times in order to lure her targets, for assassination of course and she knew how vulnerable a man was to a woman's charm.

She was now clad in a black two piece swimsuit, passing Naruto her kunai holsters she explained him what he was to do. In no time fishes were flying other the water and Naruto nailed them to a tree with accurate kunai throws. A quick Katon jutsu to light the fire and both were set for dinner, during the process Anko noticed that Naruto had looked at her attentively when she had performed the jutsu. It seemed that he had an interest for ninjutsu, she took note on it and promised silently to teach him some when he graduated.

They ate their diner silently as the night came and stars filled the sky. Naruto told her about several things that had happened during the two weeks he spent at the academy so far and of course when Anko heard Naruto talk about Sakura she didn't pass the opportunity to tease him some more.

"Oh tell who's this Sakura girl, is she your girlfriend?"

Naruto blushed a little. "She's not my girlfriend! She's just my friend!" He replied quickly.

"So why did you blush? Do you have a little crush on her otouto, you said so much about her that anyone can see she's special to you!" She insisted in her teasing.

"Of course she's special!" He defended. "She's my only real friend so far in the academy! It's true it only began two weeks ago but most people began ignoring me on the second day! She's been really nice to me, she keeps me company when I'm usually alone at lunch and she helps me during class when I don't understand something Iruka-sensei explains to me _more than one time_, but yeah she's very special to me… If only she wasn't like that the rest of the time." He said the last part in a low voice that he hoped that Anko didn't hear.

"What is she like the rest of the time, tell me?" She asked.

"It's nothing important really." He tried to wave her off.

"Tell me!" Anko demanded.

Naruto sighed. "Fangirl!"

Anko blinked for a while before bursting out laughing.

"It's not funny!"

Anko laughed some more. "Sure it is you talked so much about her and in the end she turns out a fangirl, really brat it's hilarious. I definitely have to meet that girl." The smile on her face was a scary one.

"Now get up kid time to get some sleep." Anko went over her sealing scroll.

Naruto heard her chuckling nervously. "Nee-chan?"

"Seems like I forgot one of the sleeping bags." Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Seems like we'll have to share!" She rubbed the back of her head.

Naruto had his eyes opened wide. "SAY WHAT!"

**-X0X-**

**A/N: fourth chapter done with finally, a new character introduced who might be this mysterious figure, also it seems Gatou will be in trouble next chapter. As always review give a small opinion on the story, it's those little opinions that give an idea of what to do.**

**IMPORTANT PLEASE READ: I have been having some difficulty imagining Naruto's future outfit for this story so I would like you guys to make one for him. Use your imagination, Send your ideas to me PM me or leave a review with it. Stay cool.**

**Stay cool.**

**NARUSAKU TILL DEATH!!!!**


	5. Killing, Wars and Birthdays

**THE MYSTIRIOUS CHARACTER FROM LAST CHAPTER IS NOT AN OC.**

**Chapter 5 – Killing, Wars, and Birthdays**

**Nami no kuni.**

Through the mist a figure silently moved, it was the same figure that had appeared at Kakashi's apartment weeks ago, now this shadowy figure was at Nami no kuni to solve its business with Gatou, the owner of a pretty known shipping company, the man used his company as a front for more shady business, like drug rings and weapon smuggling among other despicable things.

It also happened that he used a very dear place to the black cloaked death dealer as a smuggling point, because of the desecration of the once proud place, the black cloaked figure was now hunting the man. He would pay for what he did.

Gatou had recently taken over Nami, the people were trying to fight back they were losing the battle very quickly, since Gatou had several thugs and from time to time ninja under him.

The figure approached Gatou's company building.

In front of it stepped two thugs armed with Katanas.

"Hey you! Where do you think you're going! This area belongs to the Gatou Shipping Companies! You can't be here!" One of the Thugs said.

"I have business with your Boss." He/she (Figure) replied calmly.

"Yeah! Right! We would be warned to let anyone with your description enter, get out of here before you regret it." The other thug warned.

The mystery figure insisted. "I have very important business with your boss! He's just not expecting me."

"I'll see what I can do; the boss is having an important meeting right now! What's your name anyway?" He asked.

"My true name is of no importance but you can call me… Koumyou (Hope)." The thugs suddenly widened. **(I hope you don't have problem with the name I'm using for now; I just don't want to reveal who is this character for now and stay assured it's not a uber-powerful OC Believe me, it's not even an OC).**

"K-k-oumy-"Before they could finish their statement, Koumyou rammed a kunai through their throats. When they hit the ground they were already dead, their blood leaving a small pool in the floor.

Another of Gatou's thugs who was passing Shouted. "WE'RE BEING ATTACKED!!!" And this was the last thing He said before Koumyou punched him breaking his jaw. The thug fell to the ground clutching his jaw. He tried to swat the attacker in front of him with his mallet but to his surprise the figure stopped it with a kunai that he/she had on his/her hand.

"Nice try!" The last thing the thug thought was about the strange pitch in Koumyou's voice, unfortunately he didn't finish his train of thought since he now had a kunai stabbed in his head.

But Koumyou's trouble had just begun; thugs started rushing to the zone where the shout had come from. They were met by a sight of three of their fellows dead, not that they cared, and a black cloaked figure standing in the middle of the dead.

The thugs rushed all at the same time trying to swarm the mysterious Shinobi, Koumyou made a cross shaped hand-seal. **"Kage Bunshin no jutsu! (Shadow clone technique)" **three doppelgangers appeared, they rushed toward the thugs, while behind them their master made more hand-seals.

While the clones fought Koumyou calmly made hand-seals. The thugs didn't notice as they were facing off the three clones that were spreading chaos through their ranks. Suddenly the clones jumped out of the fight, the last thing most of the thugs saw was a towering dragon made of wind crashing on them, the thugs closest to the crash point were ripped to shreds by the cutting winds, the others were blown out against the walls some dying from the impact and others being only knocked out.

"**Fuuton: Fuuryudan (Wind Release: Wind Dragon Missile)" **the figure announced to the dead or knocked out thugs. Without knowing the consequences the jutsu would bring.

Meanwhile in Gatou's office the commotion outside was heard. The tycoon of course wasn't alone, with him were two men garbed in black cloaks with red clouds, one of them the shorter with silver hair with a slashed hitei-ite from the Yugakure on his neck said. "What the fuck was that!"

"Don't worry my employees will take care of it!" Gatou told them. "Now where were we?"

The bigger of the two Akatsuki tossed the man a black suitcase with money. "Here's your payment for transporting the goods we asked you too." This one had his face covered by a mask, his green eyes shined with an unnatural glow, in his forehead rested a slashed Takigakure hitei-ite.

"This wasn't the agreed price it was 300000 ryo this is only half of it!" Gatou protested.

"Change of plans since your services weren't that good we are only paying you half, you're lucky that we're even paying you, if it wasn't for leader-sama telling us not to kill you'd be lying on your spilled guts right now you bastard!" The silver haired one said releasing a tremendous amount of Killing intent.

Gatou shook in fear from it. "H-h-hai!"

"We'll contact you again if we need your services Gatou!" The masked one said.

"I hope n-" The silver haired one stopped. He turned to his partner "Did you feel that, seems like coming here wasn't a complete waste of time! Seems like I'll get a sacrifice for Jashin-sama!"

A couple of rooms away Koumyou continued fighting thugs, when suddenly the wall next to him/her exploded. With the debris came a wave of fire that burned several thugs, Koumyou barely escaped, His/her left arm had some bad burns in it, the sleeve of the cloak was removed showing a lean yet toned arm with various burns in it.

Two silhouettes were seen through the smoke.

"Looks like you didn't get the bastard, Kakuzu!" Said a disdainful voice.

"Shut up Hidan." Said the other one in deeper tone than the first. "Let's just kill this one! Whoever this is might have a nice bounty!"

Hidan rolled his eyes. "You and your bounty hunting!"

Kakuzu shot back. "At least I'm not a crazy priest who likes to impale himself."

The Two Akatsuki members turned to Koumyou. When Koumyou saw their cloaks his/her eyes widened behind the masks. _"Akatsuki! What are they doing here?"_

Without giving Koumyou time to think much Hidan extended his three-bladed scythe trying to cut Koumyou. He/her barely dodged the weapon but luckily had no cuts to speak off. Quickly reaching inside its cloak the black cloaked Koumyou threw a bunch of smoke bombs to the ground. Hidan again swung his scythe and this time he caught something that came along with the scythe. The cloak. Its wearer nowhere to be found. By the small release of chakra, Hidan and Kakuzu felt Koumyou had shunshined to the outside, Hidan prepared to go outside and follow the figure but Kakuzu stopped him.

"Leave it by the time we get outside this one will be long gone, whoever he or she was recognized our cloaks, there's no telling where this one learned it! We must tell Leader-sama in the next meeting!" Kakuzu said.

Hidan raged, he had just lost a potential sacrifice to Jashin-sama.

**-X0X-**

Running quickly through the forest Koumyou jumped from tree to tree as fast as its feet could go.

"_What was the Akatsuki doing here? Damn it I couldn't kill Gatou and I got hurt above it all! No matter Gatou will pay for using the ruins of my village as a smuggling point." _Koumyou thought.

At night he/she stopped to rest for a little, looking at the night sky he/she remembered. _"October tenth is near, Naruto's birth day is coming… Naruto… Why did all of this happen we were supposed to live happily nothing like that should have happened. WHY DID IT HAPPEN!"_

**-X0X-**

**Konoha**

Seating himself along Sakura, Naruto waited for his sensei to enter the room, they had just finished their morning exercises and now they were waiting for Iruka to commence their class.

"Today! We'll start talking about the Third Great ninja War and its legends!" Iruka announced. There was an excited murmur around the room.

"So does anyone know about the legends of the third war?" Iruka asked the class.

Several hands shot up, Iruka was happy to see that Naruto was one of the students who raised their hands, so he asked him.

"Naruto?"

"The Kiiroi Senkou (Yellow Flash) Iruka-sensei!" Naruto responded excitedly.

"Yes Very well Naruto! Namikaze Minato, The Kiiroi Senkou and also the Yondaime Hokage was one of the Ninja that made a name for himself during the war. He's known for having defeated Countless ninja during it." Suddenly a large picture appeared on the white screen Irukas had brought for showing slides, a blond man with blue eyes, dressed in storm-blue shinobi attire along with a green flak vest, the man was grinning on the picture.

Several sighs were heard from the females on the classroom.

Naruto stared intently at the picture, the Yondaime was his idol since he had decided to become Hokage, the Yondaime had been his role-model, powerful, adored and respected by everyone. He had sometimes fantasized that the Yondaime was his father and that he was his lost heir, poor boy didn't know how right he was.

Sakura glanced at Naruto smiling at the sight of him taking attention in class, looking to the Yondaime's picture Sakura couldn't help but look back to Naruto, they looked strangely alike.

"_May Naruto be related to the Yondaime!" _She compared the two. _"The Yondaime hair is the same shade of blond, the Yondaime has an angular face while Naruto's is rounder and he has those whiskers, I wonder if they're real? They Can't be related if they were he wouldn't be left parentless would he? Someone have taken care of him, Wouldn't it?" _

"**Shannaro! Of course they would! But Naruto is still our friend and that's what matters right now!" **Her inner proclaimed.

After explaining about the Yondaime, Iruka clicked on the remote of the slide machine and another image appeared, this one showed an ANBU clad in traditional black and grey gear, mask covered face, the ANBU's slender figure showed clearly it was a woman, the only really distinguishing trait of this ANBU was her long vibrant red hair.

"This is the Niiroi Arashi (Red Storm), no one ever knew her real name, but she also made a name for herself during the war. She's regarded as the best ANBU captain Konoha ever had, in the war she lead her ANBU Squad and helped turn the tide of Battle, also she is regarded as the second most powerful Kunoichi in Konoha below Tsunade-sama of Sannin." Many students whispered words of amazement. "This picture was taken after she retired from ANBU service a year later. Since then no one ever heard of her again she's presumed to be dead."

Without realizing Naruto had just learned about his parents.

Next appeared a map of the Elemental Nations and Iruka began to explain the two sides of the conflict. Konoha and Suna against Kumo and Iwa, while Kiri was neutral, other small Shinobi villages had joined the war helping one or other side, for example Kusagakure had joined Konoha and so on.

It was a pretty exciting lesson in Naruto's opinion, he loved hearing about the feats of the Hokages and this one was filled with feats of the Yondaime to boot.

Lunch had come very quickly as Naruto discussed the feats of the Yondaime with Sakura. Sakura couldn't help but to roll her eyes at the boy, he normally didn't take attention in class making her have to elbow him several times for him to take attention, today was a rare occasion, whenever they talked about the Hokages he would soak up information like a sponge. The bell rang and the students went to their classrooms again. Naruto was the first in the classroom. The rest of their time was spent talking about the war and making several pop quizzes that Naruto answered intently. In the end of class Iruka spoke to them.

"Most of you know what I'm going to say since you know what day is tomorrow, so since tomorrow is the celebration of the defeat of the Kyuubi there will be no classes tomorrow, so goodbye and enjoy the celebration tomorrow." Iruka said.

Naruto groaned. Tomorrow was also one of the days he hated the most besides being the celebration of the Kyuubi, his birthday. During his birthday, people around the village would be act more harshly at his presence, on his fifth birthday a couple of drunkards had broke into his house shouting something about demons and killing, if not for the dog masked ANBU assigned to watch over him at the time things could have turned ugly, on another occasion someone had thrown a stone against his windows breaking them. Whenever he walked around the village people would glare more hatefully at him and mutter words like murderer or demon. When he was younger he really thought he was a demon but as he got older he reasoned telling himself that he was human for sure.

Normally he would spent his birthday at home, there were only a few people who ever cared about his birthday, the first was the Hokage, the second was Teuchi, his daughter Ayame the third and the last one was the kind dog masked ANBU Inu. Teuchi and Ayame would offer him the meal, the Hokage normally offered him clothes and 4 weeks' worth of his allowance in money, he had managed to save up quite a bit, then lastly it was Inu who would knock on his window at midnight, he would give him several different presents, he had given him his frog shaped wallet on his fifth birthday, his first shuriken and kunai set on his sixth, he had also offered him the only book he would read, besides his text book "Legend of the Gutsy ninja" in which the main character had his name, he would always wait for Inu to give him his present.

Most students were very happy since the celebration was very big and there were lot of things going on. Naruto would just keep at home eating ramen and reading a little of his book, which had become a regular activity on said day.

"Hey Naruto! Naruto are you in there!" Sakura was waving her hands in front of his face.

Naruto shook his head he had apparently been in deep thought for quite a while. "What did you say Sakura-chan?"

"I asked what are you going to do tomorrow?" She asked in an annoyed tone of voice.

"I think I'm going to train a little and then I'll be at home probably!" He told her.

"You're continuing to train with those weights of yours?" She asked.

"Yup!" Naruto remembered when he told her about the weights, he couldn't help but chuckle at the memory.

_Flashback –_

_It was the day Naruto had returned from his camping trip with Anko, He was on his way to the academy, happy to be back, the teasing that Anko had put him through was enough for few good times , also he didn't want to remember what had happened when he and her did the improvement for the Oiroke no jutsu, a nosebleed threatened to come whenever he remembered that, but it would be worth seeing Iruka-sensei's reaction to it._

_He entered the classroom and there he was with his back to him, everyone of his classmates was already there, even better, the grin on his face took its usual look from when he was up to something. From his place he heard Sakura groan, he sincerely didn't understand the girl she behaved almost like an adult, serious, mature, Naruto didn't know how to be those two things, when he inquired the Hokage if he should be more like that the hokage had laughed and said that being like that was impossible for him and if he behaved like that he wouldn't be Naruto. Anyway following, he made the hand-seal for the henge, there was the usual smoke that hid his new form from sight, Iruka turned back to see what was happening, when the smoke cleared his jaw almost hit the ground. In front of him was none other than Anko, a naked Anko, with nothing on but clouds of smoke covering her privates, almost immediately every male in class had a nosebleed, yes even Sasuke, he even swore that he saw some girls looking at him enviously, probably because he was able to catch Sasuke's attention when they weren't. Now back to Iruka's reaction, first the poor chunin at blushed like no tomorrow, after that he started to twitch uncontrollably trying to control himself. Naruto rememred what Anko had told him to do._

_Latching himself to Iruka he purred in Anko's voice. "Hhhhiiiii Iruka-kun I missed you so much!" He said it while one of his henged legs wrapped around Iruka and he played with Iruka's ears. Quickly noticing what was to come, Naruto flung himself from his teacher canceling the henge. Iruka's nosebleed was the biggest until now. _

_Everyone around class had started laughing even the boys who were coming to their senses now. Naruto could have sworn he heard Sasuke mutter "damn that was a good one."._

_Of course when Iruka recovered he had given him a detention, but the result of the prank had been so worth it. _

_After seating himself with Sakura he had been patted on the back by Kiba._

"_Dude that was one hot chick, where did you get the imagination!" The Inuzuka boy asked._

"_Nee-chan!" Naruto had said bluntly._

_Sakura picked up at this."What she helped!!!" She said incredulously._

_Naruto chuckled. "The henge, that was nee-chan!" He said bluntly._

_Both Kiba and Sakura paled. "She knows?" they asked._

"_She helped me do it!" He said._

"_And here I thought there wasn't someone crazier than Naruto!" Sakura said._

_Then she noticed the armbands. "Hey Naruto's what's that?" Sakura pointed to the armbands._

"_I'll tell you later!" Sakura nodded accepting his answer for now, without the two knowing they were heard by Kiba, how could he not he came from a dog using clan so his hearing was pretty accurate._

"_Yeah I'm curious too now Naruto!" Kiba whispered to him. "Don't try to whisper near me it's useless."_

_Naruto groaned, Anko had told him to be careful about it. _

_So at lunch he had showed them his weights and pleaded them not to tell it to anyone, but not only negative things had come from telling this, Kiba and Akamaru started spending some time with Naruto. The next day Kiba had a set of weights of his own._

_Flashback End_

"Seriously you boys only think is training, training, training and all you practically talk is ninja stuff! Gosh don't you guys have other interests?" Sakura shook her head and thought. _"Boys!"_

"Huh Sakura-chan this is a shinobi academy it's natural that we talk and think about those things it's what we're doing here. We're going to become shinobi, someday we'll be the protectors of this village, training to get stronger is part of it, and basically we're already adapting to our future lives. I'll be Hokage someday, I'll have to protect this entire Village with my life, I'll have to become stronger if I want to protect everyone I care about. So don't go saying that it's all we think about, because it isn't like we don't have other hobbies, we do. It's just that becoming Shinobi of the leaf is more important. I don't know what your reason to become a ninja is and I won't judge you for it, but becoming stronger like I said it's important, weak ninja die in the battlefield or are just a bunch of cowards who leave their friends to die." Naruto said is usual joking tone replaced by a calm serious one.

Sakura stood silent, Naruto's words running in her head, What was her reason to become a ninja, her crush on Sasuke?, Her friendship with Ino?, Did she have a reason for becoming a ninja, To be like everyone else?, in the end her inner was the one who came with the answer.

"**I don't know."**

Kiba too was speechless, he was a heir from a ninja clan, his destiny was too be a ninja like the rest of his family, but listening this was having him thinking better, What did he want? Was just his family way's to make him want to become a ninja? Or there was something else. "Damn my head hurts! Warn us when you have another of those insight moments will ya? Who ould have thought that a short little baka like you could say something like that." Kiba said rubbing his forehead. Akamaru whined shaking his little head.

Beside him Sakura only nodded.

Iruka was smiling after hearing this, he could tell that his other two students would have a lot to think about. It seemed those two would be going through some changes.

The three friends parted their ways at the exit to the academy.

Sakura's way home was a very thoughtful one, Naruto words were still going through her head. Did she really have a reason, was it a good one or not. She was so deep in thought that she didn't realize she had reached home.

Snapping out of her trance enough to put the keys on her door, she entered and continued with her thinking.

"Sakura is that you?" A voice said from the house's kitchen.

Snapping again from the trance, Sakura looked at her mother, she had an odd hair color like her daughter, but instead of pink her mother had short white hair, her eyes green like her daughters. More than often Haruno Yuki, a fitting name, had been mistaken as a old woman than actually a woman who was in her thirties, Sakura's hair color had actually came her father who had dark pink hair. Her father had been a low level chunin ninja, his name was Haruno Toushiro, he died on a mission when Sakura was only 3 years old, her mother was a civilian. The Haruno were a minor ninja clan who had no ninjas in the active right now, as all minor ninja clans they lived under a major clan that watched over that area of the city reporting to the Hokage if the area had problems or needed repairs etc. the major clan that ruled this area was the Yamanaka clan.

"Is anything wrong Sakura?" Her mother asked concerned for her daughter.

"Naruto said something, I've been thinking about it for some time!" Sakura answered. "He said that he had a reason to become a ninja a pretty noble one, I never heard him talk like that before in the whole month I've known him, now I'm thinking about myself, do I have a good reason at all, Naruto said he wants' to become Hokage so he can protect everyone he cares about. I don't think I even have a reason for becoming a ninja. I feel so lost right now!" Sakura replied. "All I've been till now was a good for nothing know-it-all, sure it's good to have intelligence but I don't have anything else that can help me, I'm worthless! I'll be just a burden."

Yuki hugged her daughter. "Sakura you're not worthless and so what if you're weak you can change that you still have time and your intelligence will help you find a way, it seems a change is needed don't you think?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes mother!"

"You're a very kind person Sakura I attest that and I'm sure that Naruto does too!" Yuki said.

"Naruto?" Sakura looked questioningly at her mother.

"Of course you were his first friend in the academy, when everyone started ignoring him you were the only one who didn't and you actually befriended him. I'm pretty sure Naruto has you in a very high regard." Yuki comforted her daughter. Sakura now looked better than ever a rebuilt confidence and new objectives: find a path and become stronger.

"Thank you Kaa-san!" The pinkette gave her mother a big hug.

Yuki smiled. "No problem sweetie! Oh by the way did you buy a present for Naruto's birthday."

"Naruto's birthday?" The younger Haruno asked the older one.

Yuki was confused. "Yes naruto's birthday is tomorrow didn't you know?"

Sakura shook her head. "That little Jackass didn't tell me! Argh now I've to go buy him something! And I've got so little time."

Her mother watched amusedly as her daughter started ranting about how much of an idiot Naruto was. At the Inuzuka compound Kiba had a similar reaction.

In the safety of his apartment Naruto felt a sudden sense of dread. "Something bad is going to happen! I just know it!"

**-X0X-**

Naruto woke up feeling worse than usual, today was one of the day he hated the most, his birthday. He stumbled to his bathroom, he took a quick shower and put on his clothes minus the armbands and the weights. His breakfast was a simple toast along with a cup of instant ramen.

In his room he put his hand under the bed and pulled a green book. People wouldn't think he would be one of reading, since it was an activity that required patience like gardening, another activity of his. This day was too be the same as it was years ago, lonely, sure some people gave him presents and visited him, he didn't mind them it was a way of people showing him affection, but he wanted something else he wanted to feel normal for once have a nice party with friends and a family, unfortunately his wish would never be granted he had the friends but he would never have a family.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Someone was at the door, putting down his book Naruto went to answer the door, he wasn't expecting anyone at the time, the Hokage would come later on the day.

As soon as he opened the door he was met with a fist to the skull.

"So tell me Shorty when you were planning to tell me about your birthday!" The voice belonged to Kiba who stood at his door with something under his arm.

"Kiba! What are doing here? How did you know today is my birthday?" Naruto asked the taller boy.

"My mother told me! Now back to why didn't you tell me today was your birthday?" Kiba asked.

"It's not that important you know!" Naruto told Kiba while rubbing his head.

"You're kidding right? It's your freaking birthday!" Kiba shook his head. "I don't really understand you at all. Anyway here this is for you!" He passed the smaller boy the box he had under his arm.

The blond unwrapped his gift, inside was a book, a book about the Yondaime, he read the back of the book.

"Whoa! This is a nice book, Thanks Kiba!" Naruto continue looking at the book the book told the Yondaime's achievements since he was a Genin to the moment of his death, it seemed to have been written by some guy called Jiraya, who said that he had been his teacher, Naruto had heard the name before but he couldn't remember where.

His present from Akamaru was a couple of licks on his face.

"I know you're not one of reading much, but I guess you would like this book, since you are always talking how you want to be like the Yondaime. I was already out of options when I found this book it's a little old but you'll definitely like it!" Kiba said.

He invited Kiba to enter, when kiba laid his eyes on the book that was on the couch he screamed.

The brunette pointed at the green book on the couch. "There's no freaking way! I understand you would read a book about Hokages but another kind of book hell no!" Kiba didn't know what to think about Naruto, he behaved like an idiot most of the time, and then out of nowhere he would surprise people with something he did or said. Naruto was a truly unpredictable person. Kiba's reaction to Naruto's other hobby was different, he burst out laughing and said gardening was girly, Naruto "hmphed" at this.

They chatted for a couple more minutes, before another knock came from the door.

When Naruto opened the door, he was sent flying into his common room. Kiba stared for a while before seeing who had managed such a throw, there at Naruto's door was none other than Sakura, an angry Sakura. Kiba once again laughed this time at the blond's predicament.

"Naruto you Jackass Why didn't you tell me anything about your birthday, it had to be my mother telling me to know about it!" The pinkette was furious, after entering she grabbed Naruto and started shaking him.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" A voice said from the door, there stood the purple haired woman Naruto had used on his henge weeks ago. Kiba blushed a little, while Sakura stared at her with a dazed Naruto in her arms.

"I'm not interrupting some lover's quarrel am I?" She joked, her mischievous grin in her face.

Naruto and Sakura blushed a little bit. The girl dropped the boy who fell to the floor on a heap.

"N-nee-c-chan!" Naruto stuttered he tried to reach to her with his arm but he wasn't able.

Anko laughed at his state. "What did you do this time otouto?" She asked while laughing.

"He didn't tell us about his birthday! His own friends!" Sakura said still a little angry with Naruto.

Anko shook her head. "Anyway, here's your present?" She first passed him a wrapped bundle, she had got him a couple of fishnet t-shirts. "You'll need some armor for when you become a Genin and these offer a nice deal of protection." She then threw him a scroll. "And that is a little jutsu for you to learn you should be able to do it pretty well with your amount of chakra!" Naruto looked at the scroll inside were the words **Kage Shruiken no jutsu (Shadow Shuriken technique).**

"Thanks a lot nee-chan!" He gave her a hug.

They heard someone smack their forehead, when they turned they saw that it was Sakura who did it.

"I completely forgot about it!" She reached her pouch and pulled a small wrapped gift. "Here Naruto this is for you!"

It was a small box, white made of wood, the box had an red spiral on top. Naruto opened the box, inside, wrapped in red velvet was a necklace, the necklace was a metallic spiral. The boy held it up for a moment staring at it.

"Wow this is awesome Sakura-chan! Thanks!" He smiled and gave her a hug. Sakura blushed a bit as she felt Naruto's body press against hers and his arms wrap around her.

"No problem!" She said. "Just don't hide something like that from us again!"

He looked ashamed for a little bit. "I'll try not to!" His smile was infectious and soon everyone on the room was smiling.

And then for the third time that hour another knock sounded through the apartment's door. This time it was Iruka , he was surprised to see Sakura and Kiba there and he blushed when he saw Anko.

"Hello Sakura, Kiba!" He greeted his students, and then he turned to Anko nervously. "H-h-ello Anko!" Anko smirked at his reaction.

"Hello Iruka-kun!" She purred. If possible Iruka blushed even more.

"Happy Birthday Naruto!" He wished to his student, Iruka's present was two new Kunai holsters, the holsters were black made of resistant leather, sewn on them was the red Kanji for fire. "Those are very resistant; they'll serve you good when you become a Genin."

While Naruto thanked Iruka, Kiba turned to Sakura. "Hey Sakura did you notice Iruka-sensei? I think he has a crush on this Anko chick!"

Sakura agreed. "Yeah I noticed that too, he may have a crush on her but we can't jump on conclusions!"

"Hey Kiba! Yesterday, you know after he said that did you-" She started.

"Think about what he said? Yeah I did! I think I have an answer for it now." He told her. "What about you Sakura?"

The girl looked down for a bit. "I still don't know the reason why I want to be a ninja but I think I'll be able to find it!"

Unknown to both of them Anko was listening to their conversation. "Did the brat over there give you the pleasure of one of his insightful speeches?"

Both Academy students nodded. "Pretty strange for a guy who behaves like an idiot huh?" Again they nodded. "I'll tell half the time he'll behave like an idiot, while from time to time he has those moments; he kind of freaked me out when I saw him do that for the first time." Anko shook her head at that. "By the way I'm Mitarashi Anko!"

The Academy students presented themselves. When the Tokubestu jonin heard Sakura's name she gave her a look and said. "We need to have a chat, after this!" She said.

Sakura looked confused at her.

**-X0X-**

After leaving Naruto, Sakura was taken by Anko to a restaurant.

"Listen, Pinky the reason I want to talk to is because my otouto talks a great deal about you!" Anko started.

Sakura blinked. Naruto talked about her? What was with the Pinky nickname. "What did he say about me?"

"A lot of good things, how smart you were and how nice you were, along those lines, the boy can speak about you for an hour!" Anko said rolling her eyes. "He told you about our camping trip?" The older Kunoichi asked.

"He did!" Sakura confirmed, she still didn't understand why they were having this conversation.

"You see he told me about you a lot, he seems to very fond of you, since you were his first friend at the academy. Now after telling so much good about you he told something that I didn't like to hear. He told me that you, smartest Kunoichi of your year, you who haves a great chakra control and especially you who are a dear friend of my otouto, you Haruno Sakura are a Fangirl!" Anko said in a very harsh tone.

"I'm not a Fangirl!" Sakura protested.

"Yes you are! You're a pathetic worthless excuse of a kunoichi, you and the rest of the little Uchiha fan club are an embarrassment to all serious Kunoichi of Konoha, and it's because of girls like you that no one respects Kunoichi!" The Snake user shouted.

Sakura's eyes widened, tears fell from her eyes, there it was the proof that she was weak and worthless, Naruto's yesterday words had left some uneasiness on her, Anko's had confirmed what she thought and had gone beyond that, she had shown her how she really was.

While Sakura cried Anko got up and prepared to leave. Before leaving she turned to Sakura and said. "Think well about what I said!"

And then she added. "Come to me if you want to change that!"

**-X0X-**

Later that night Naruto was reading his new book about the Yondaime, the sounds of the festivities filling Konoha, but he didn't care, people would take his presence there badly so he stayed away from there. In the afternoon the Hokage had passed by wishing him a happy birthday and stayed to talk to him for about an hour before returning to his duties. His present were four new blackmuscle shirts and the usual amount of money. He had dinner at Ichiraku's, as always they offered him the meal and wished him a happy birthday.

This birthday had been slightly different from the others, this time a lot more people had wished him a happy birthday, more people recognized his existence, yes things were changing for the best now.

He was now Waiting for his late last visitor, Inu, the ANBU had along with others looked after him, but Inu, had been the only one to ever approach him and he had to say, he was always pretty funny to be with. But last year the ANBU had stopped watching over him and Inu had stopped four years ago, still he would always come to check on Naruto on his birthday.

So now here he was waiting for the Inu, reading Kiba's present in his neck was Sakura's. These two presents had been very special to him since Sakura and Kiba were his first friends on the Academy. The book was very detailed, the author had stated that since early the Yondaime or Minato-kun like the author referred to him had a knack for the ninja arts, also the author talked about him not like a legend but like he like he really was, a kind hearted man who loved the village to the day of his death, in the end the author portrayed him as human being.

Naruto slipped through the books pages until he heard the so awaited knock on his window. Quickly getting up, he reached to his bedroom window, there stood as always Inu clad on his ANBU gear, but this time he had someone else. Naruto eyed the newcomer he or she was clad in an ANBU black cloak, and a mask covered face.

"Hello Naruto-kun, Happy Birthday!" Inu said in his usual mask muffled voice.

"Hello Inu-san! Who's that?" the boy pointed to the newcomer.

"This is my… uh senpai, yes this is my senpai!!" Behind his mask Kakashi sweated a little, the things he did to keep his senpai's identity a secret.

"What's your name ANBU-san?" the boy asked.

"I have many names Naruto-kun but for now you can call me Koumyou." Koumyou answered the boy.

Kakashi shook his head. _"Senpain is hurting! Why does senpai do this! Why doesn't Senpai just take off that mask and come back to Konoha! We could take care of Senpai's enemies while senpai took care of Naruto like it was intended. Why is senpai so stubborn?" _

"So tell me Naruto-kun how has been your special day?" Koumyou inquired, Koumyou was very curious to know how Naruto's birthday was.

"It was different this year but… It's still lonely! I wish I could have a normal birthday!" Naruto said in a sad tone.

Once again Koumyou asked. "Normal birthday? What do you mean by that?"

"I would like to spend my birthday with my friends and…" Naruto stopped

"And?" Koumyou wasn't definitely ready for Naruto's answer.

"… a family." He finally said.

That single word had hit Koumyou like a wall of bricks, its body started shaking, a sound escaped its lips…

A sob.

Koumyou pulled Naruto into a hug. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Koumyou choked, they stood like that for a good fifteen minutes. "It wasn't supposed to be like this we were supposed to be happy! It wasn't supposed to happen! It wasn't supposed to happen!" Naruto was confused what was this person saying, it made no sense. "I hope you can someday forgive for what I'm doing. I should be here with you! But I can't, I still have many enemies, but I promise you I'll come and we'll be together as we were supposed to."

"Senpai, you to calm down." Inu said.

The mysterious Koumyou nodded. "Yes I'm sorry Inu –kun and you too Naruto-kun. I'm sorry!"

"We came here to give you our presents Naruto!" Inu tried to lighten the mood, but wasn't very successful. _"Senpai. You're only hurting yourself with this!"_

A last sob came from Koumyou. "Yes your right Inu-kun, we have to give our presents to Naruto-kun. Please you start."

Inu nodded and pulled a big box he was carrying with him. "Okay open the box!" As he opened it Naruto stared in amazement inside the box were several ninja supplies. Real weapons, not training weapons, Kunai, Shuriken, Metal wire, explosive tags. Inu was one of giving ninja tools for his birthdays since he had started the academy. What Naruto didn't know was that these weren't simple weapons that you bought on the village; those were ANBU grade weapons only available to them at their headquarters. Kakashi had pulled a few strings to get the weapons and once he said to whom they were the ANBU were more than happy to give them, while the majority of the village adored the Uchiha heir, Inside the ANBU headquarters, the name of Uzumaki Naruto was carried with respect, respect for his sacrifice.

Also Inu pulled other present, these were two new weapon pouches. They were grey, with red swirls. Naruto noted that these two were filled with supplies.

"Use those when you become a genin, but until then don't show anyone or I'll get in trouble, get it!" Naruto nodded the last thing he wanted was to get Inu in trouble. "Also I didn't include any soldier pills on there, they would rot before you even used them, so you'll have to buy them when you graduate."

Naruto gave a hug to Inu and thanked him.

"Now it's my turn!" Koumyou said reaching inside its cloak Koumyou pulled a sealing scroll. The first the figure unsealed was a white card.

"I need you to focus your chakra into that card Naruto-kun!" Koumyou explained.

Doing as he was said Naruto focused chakra at the card. The card was cut in half.

"What happened?" He asked.

"That was a special chakra card that lets people know the nature of their chakra, what happened was one of the reactions, what happened just know means that you have Wind Natured Chakra. And thus you are capable of performing Fuuton jutsus!" Koumyou again explained the boy.

"Wind! That's so lame! What am I going to do breeze my enemies to death!" He didn't seem happy with his element. "I wish I had fire like Nee-chan!"

"Now now, don't underestimate wind jutsu, Wind is the most offensive element, its range of attacks go from a calm breeze to a raging tornado. So I must say in my defense as Wind user myself, don't underestimate Wind! You'll see when you learn to use cutting winds!" Koumyou exclaimed.

"Oh ok! Koumyou-san!"

The next present from Koumyou were three scrolls two were white with a black trim and the other was light brown with a red trim. "Iknow it's nothing special but I hope you like it! The thicker white scroll as instructions for you to learn how to manipulate wind, the second one has a wind jutsu and the brown one contains a jutsu that I want you to practice in secret, show it only to those in who you have the utmost confidence, you'll be able to graduate with this jutsu, so keep it as a surprise of sorts to your teacher."

"Thank you Koumyou-san!" Naruto thanked the stranger.

Kakashi and Koumyou stood up. "Naruto-kun we must go now, but it was good to see you again!" Said Inu as he jumped out of the window.

"Naruto-kun please close your eyes." Koumyou requested.

Naruto did as he was asked to, Koumyou pulled its mask up and planted a soft kiss on Naruto's forehead.

"Goodbye Naruto-kun until we meet again!" With that Koumyou too left the apartment.

The boy stood there for a moment touching the place where Koumyou's soft lips had kissed his forehead, there was something behind that kiss… love.

**-X0X-**

**A/N: Long chapter this one huh, hope you guys liked it, next chapter I'm going to focus on NaruSaku'ers favorite pink haired girl. Read, review and enjoy. Sorry for any errors that might have slipped.**

**Till next chapter - Blossoming Sakura **

**Whirlpool-Maelstrom**


	6. Blossoming Sakura

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. **

**Chapter 6 – Blossoming Sakura**

The sun shone in Konoha, waking up people for the new day that was to come; among them was Haruno Sakura, the pink haired academy student from this year's graduating class. She was definitely not a morning person as she turned to her bed's other side trying to escape the sun rays.

"Sakura wake up! Your teacher will be here to pick you up soon!" Eyes widened the girl immediately got out of bed; today Anko was going to take her and Naruto to the Forest of Death for one of her famous or infamous Camping trips.

It had been eight months since her revealing conversation with Anko. She had spent the week after that strangely quiet, observing her female classmates fawning over the Uchiha boy, Anko's words had struck deep within her mind, from her observations she found out how she really was and she found it disgusting, for three years she had been fawning about a boy who would never spare her a glance and wouldn't care about her, she also had broke up her with her best friend, before meeting Naruto, because of Uchiha Sasuke. In the end Sakura felt like crap. She was weak, not anymore, Naruto's bruises during training proved that, she was a fangirl, never again would she commit an error like that.

Realizing that friendship was more important than any boy, Sakura made up with Ino getting her best friend back, the interesting thing was that after that Ino had stopped fawning over Sasuke too, which made her realize that her best friend even after breaking their friendship still looked after her, trying to get the boy so that Sakura wouldn't have someone as bad as him, which made Sakura even more disgusted with herself.

She had been a weak wannabe Kunoichi but training with Anko, had changed that, a week after the two's conversation, she sought the purple haired kunoichi to train her, Anko had been more than happy to start training her, taking on a second student.

The training sessions had been as Naruto had described her. Brutal. Anko gave no mercy to her students and they had been getting worse as the graduation neared, Anko's training methods varied from tossing kunai tirelessly to improve dodging, to sit reading books after books in tactics, jutsu theory, taijutsu, Ninjutsu, genjutsu and other subjects.

Her sadistic sensei was a very studious person, no one would have guessed with her easygoing, tomboyish and hyperactive personality, but she wouldn't have guessed that Naruto liked to read and grow plants. Indeed Anko and Naruto were very interesting people to know. Both were very alike in behavior, loving to pull pranks, very loud, but in the end they had a good heart.

Sakura got out of her bed and took a quick shower, she got dressed in red long sleeved shirt and dark green sweatpants, since her dress had been worn out by the constant training, she had stated wearing those clothes, also they helped hiding the weights she used now, her hair was now shoulder length, she had cut it because it was always getting in the way during training and besides people had told her that she looked better with her hair short, mainly Naruto. The blond had blushed when he had seen her with her hair like that the first time.

Quickly getting down to the kitchen she had breakfast, she was no longer in a diet has training required that she had energy and all the fat that could be accumulated was burned in the several exercises.

Change's had gone through Salura's body as well, at the age of thirteen, puberty's changes were now noticeable in Sakura, no longer she was a flat chested girl, but she wasn't busty either.

A knock came from the door announcing the arrival of her sensei, grabbing her kunai holster and weapon pouch she went out saying goodbye to her mother.

Outside were Anko and Naruto already waiting for her, Naruto had now start to fill out, his muscles causing some girls at the academy to blush. He was dressed with a black muscle shirt with fishnet sleeves poking out, his normal orange pants and his black armbands. His hair was longer now, making several blond bangs of hair fall down to his face and sides.

"Morning Sakura-chan!" He greeted smiling at her.

"Morning Naruto-kun!" She now added the suffix to her blond friend. "How are you?"

"I'm fine Sakura-chan thanks for asking, are you read for our camping trip? This might be the last before we become Genin." He said cheerfully at the prospect of being one step closer of being Hokage.

"Oi! If you two are done talking we could get a move on!" Anko interjected in their conversation.

"Hai" The two said in unison. They started their way to training ground 44. At first the place had scared the girl, but after some time she got used to the place. Sakura remembered not being able to sleep in her first night because of how scared she was.

Their way to the forest was a silent one, Sakura didn't like this kind of silence, being with two loud people she was used to the noise by now, so this kind of silence was concerning sometimes, and this also meant that Anko and Naruto were being serious. Naruto still amazed her with his sudden moments of intelligence, being deemed as an idiot, things like that were still surprising for her and Kiba. Speaking of Kiba, She and Naruto had been so immersed in their training that they only saw the Inuzuka at the Academy, hanging out at lunch and helping each other studying before tests, Sakura hoped this would change after they become Genin, the three were now good friends but heir training schedules occupied lots and lots of time, Naruto and Sakura with Anko and Kiba with his clan. Naruto , Sakura had started getting strange felling when she was around him, not butterflies in her belly like it was with Sasuke, but she felt a pleasant sense of security, like nothing could harm her, she felt at peace, like she could be herself, without being judged.

"Hey Naruto, do you think we'll pass the Graduation Exam?" What a stupid question of course Naruto would pass the exam, her eyes had nearly bulged out their sockets when he had shown the Kage Bunshin no jutsu, she had pretty much confirmed that out of all their class Naruto easily was the most powerful, but since his grades weren't all that good he wasn't ranked up very high. Her grades also dropped a little and she wasn't at the top of her class anymore, having been training didn't leave her much time to study, at first she had been upset that her grades had dropped but her mother comforted saying that grades weren't all.

"I think so Sakura-chan! And I'm pretty sure you'll pass with flying colors! You're too smart to fail the Graduation Exam. Believe it!" He gave her his trademark foxy grin and a thumbs up.

"I heard we are put into teams of three! Wouldn't it be awesome if we are put on the same team?" She asked him hopefully.

Naruto smiled. "You bet it would be cool if we are on the same team. I really hope so Sakura-chan!"

Anko joined the conversation "It's pretty possible of happening since you're at the middle of your class and Sakura isn't at the top of the class anymore!" Their sensei loved teasing them, she had mercilessly teased Sakura when she heard that she hadn't the best grades anymore, she would say things like "I'm so disappointed at you Sakura!" or "Yes I noticed your forehead was getting smaller!".

"You guys have great chance of being together, your teamwork reports from the academy show that you two work very well with each other." Anko said.

Indeed they worked, Sakura being the brain and Naruto the brawn, they worked very well with each other. Sakura's intelingence along with Naruto's raw power had made them win some team practices, even their elemental affinities worked well together, she was surprised when her chakra card had burst in flames meaning that she had Fire Natured Chakra.

If Sakura could choose she would have liked to be in a team with Naruto and Ino, but that wasn't possible since teams were composed of two males and one female. Of course if she had to choose another one of the boys to be with her and Naruto that would be Kiba because he was their friend. Other team possibilities passed through her head, when she had thought of team of her, Naruto and Sasuke, she muttered "Too inbalanced!". Putting two powerhouses like them in the same teams would cause one or other to be too weak.

"Anko-sensei do you know anything the jonin assigned to be team leader's?" Sakura asked.

"I only know one, his name his Hatake Kakashi, they have a poll going to see when the guy will actually have a team…" She said shaking her head. "I hope you don't get the guy as your teacher or you're done for." She whispered the last part.

"Hatake? Is he related to Hatake Sakumo, the Shiroi Kiba (White Fang) Sensei?" Sakura had heard like the rest of the students the story of the Shiroi Kiba a ninja that was more known during the second war than the Sannin and also greater than them.

Nodding Anko told them about the silver haired jonin. "Yeah he's his son! He's supposed to be a pervert who reads this orange little book in public and he's also always late for his appointments giving the lamest of excuses. I already told you about him one time Otouto."

"Are you talking about the same orange you have hidden under your couch?" Naruto asked mischievously.

" I don't know what you're talking about!" Anko replied quickly.

**-X0X-**

Setting camp was the first rule when on their camping trips. The wood and stones needed for the campfire were gathered.

The sensei and the two students prepared their equipment for training, in one of the edges of the glade was a crudely carved human like wooden dummy that they used for target practice. Anko tossed Sakura a bundle with senbon, which she had taught Sakura how to use, placing three in each hand she took aim and began throwing Senbon at a constant rate.

Meanwhile Anko supervisioned naruto's taijutsu training as he sparred with one his clones. Naruto had come along very well with his training, the style Kinsei Kobushi (Balance fist), was as stated a very solid style, unlike Anko's Buyu no Hebi(Dance of the Snake) which was a more flowing style that relied in attacking vital points more than causing damage through brute strength.

Anko looked at her two students with pride, Naruto her otouto had always been shunned by the village, at the academy he had been overlooked for what he had inside of him, no one had tried to teach him until Iruka, still the boy had come a long way with the little guidance he had, showing how good he really was, Sakura was another having lost her father at a early age clearly affected her learning at the academy, having no role model to follow the girl concentrated on the theory academy teachings while her physical ones lacked. Both had lots of potential Naruto had his amount of chakra and his stamina that made a tireless ball of energy, Sakura had her near perfect chakra control and her intelligence that made a powerful combination. The two kids were Heaven and Earth, Sakura being Heaven and Naruto Earth, combining the two was a very successful mix and for a plus Sakura was able of keeping Naruto in check and he would make her less serious and more open to life. Those two seemed like they were made for each other.

Knowing her otouto well, he clearly had a crush if not more on the girl and Sakura seemed to feel something towards the boy, but hadn't realized it yet.

For hours they trained stopping to rest for a little and have lunch, they trained weapon handling, ninjutsu, taijutsu and genjutsu (Sakura). At night they talked for a good while about their hopes, objectives and about funny things that had happened to them.

The next day began with Sakura washing herself on the river only clad in her pink underwear, while she cleaned herself she didn't notice that someone was coming in her direction.

Naruto still half asleep walked to the river to wash himself, Anko had shouted something to him, but he didn't pay attention to what she said. He continued walking until the sight of pink stooped him.

There on the river stood his crush, clad in nothing but pink underwear. Without thinking about his safety he gasped.

Hearing a gasp behind her Sakura turned back to see, who had done the sound. Naruto stood there, his face bright red, from what he was seeing.

The girl screamed and covered herself screaming. "Pervert! What are you doing? Go away!" Still he only stood there as his brain had shut down all functions. Mad for the boy not moving Sakura walked towards and punched him with her powerful right hook that sent the boy flying a few meters into the camp.

Anko shook her head muttering the words. "I warned you idiot."

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, with Sakura barely speaking at Naruto still mad for his stunt in the morning.

"You know this will be probably our last camping trip for a good while!" Anko said, she had been pretty happy by spending time with people in her favorite place, she was slightly saddened that they wouldn't have more moments like this in a while, but still she was happy because her students would be graduating, they would probably give her a pretty good name and Hokage might give her a team of Genin for herself, she chuckled at the thought of having a team of Genin to torture… er training, but nonetheless those two would always be her dear students.

"I definitely want to come back here! The time I had here was too much good to forget just like that. Believe it!" Naruto said in his usually loud voice

"It takes some time to get used too but I learned to enjoy this place very much, after spending some time here you notice that it's actually a very peaceful if you overlook the fauna trying to kill you!" Sakura's comment had them all sharing a good laugh.

The next day they woke up early, so the kids wouldn't be late for the Academy.

**-X0X-**

"Hey Forehead!" Ino greeted Sakura with her usual nickname.

"Hello Piggy!" Sakura greeted back smiling, their name calling was now more of a show of friendship than insulting eachother.

"I went to search for you at your home but your mother told me that you were on another of those Camping trips again." The platinum blond girl told her friend

"Yeah I went on another on another camping trip with Anko-sensei!" She said. Ino noticed that she hadn't said anything about Naruto.

"Naruto didn't go with you?" Ino asked not knowing what had happened.

"He did go with us! The little pervert!" Sakura said in an angry tone.

"Whoa forehead! Calm down what happened between the two of you?" Ino asked wanting to know what had gotten Sakura in such a foul mood.

Sakura told the blond girl about what happened that morning. Ino couldn't help but laugh at hilariousness of the situation, poor Naruto had walked on Sakura, who was in her underwear, the little guy had blushed like no tomorrow only to have the daylights punched out of him by an angry Sakura.

"And you punched him! Poor guy!" Ino said shaking her head negatively. "You'll never get a boyfriend if you keep hitting people each time they piss you off!"

"Shut up pig that little pervert had what he deserved, walking on me when I'm cleaning myself the nerve!" Sakura said her mood not changing.

Shaking her head Ino went to her seat still very amused with the situation. She watched as the rest of the students filled the room, a very shy Naruto seated near to Sakura who didn't pay attention to him.

"Good morning students I'm very proud to say to that we are entering the final week of your academy course, it's been a long four years, but we finally reached here were we are now, this week we'll be going through the Subjects covered during the last years and this, also we'll be having various physical exercises, Friday you'll be having your graduation exam which will be a surprise for you guys!" Iruka addressed the excited students. "by the end of the week some of you will be getting out of here as proud Genin of konoha!"

"But for now let's start with our exercises today we'll start with a team obstacle course. I'll start now by saying the teams." Iruka started saying the teams. Sakura groaned when she found out that she was with Naruto and Shikamaru, she was still upset with Naruto and she really didn't feel like dealing with him.

Getting up the students filled out of the class, outside they got together into the various groups.

Shikamaru hooked up with Naruto and Sakura, with his always presented lazy expression. Sakura didn't understand the guy, he was so lazy, if the guy actually did try at class he would possibly be the best of their year, he was a genius, his team won the several practical exercises very often, the times Sakura had been on his team the boy had come up with some flawless plan. Shikamaru was a brilliant strategist, he planed ahead, when you actually noticed the plan, you would have already fallen for it. The only problem he had was that he was lazy, he slept in almost every class, having Iruka mad at him for sleeping.

The Nara heir looked at the two teammates for the exercise, Naruto, was the powerhouse of the class, the boy had so much chakra that he could barely control it although he had been showing improvements, Sakura, had changed a lot since they were on the same class, she was no longer a fangirl and she seemed to be stronger than she was before.

He looked at the obstacle course they were supposed to do, they were supposed to work together to pass through several traps, hit moving targets to open doors the main objective was get to the other point of the course were the exit was, using teamwork.

First team was Kiba's who was paired up with two other kids Shikamaru didn't know. Several sounds were heard from the inside, some shouts too, Kiba's team seemed to argue quite a bit but finally after fifteen minutes they got out. The brunette was quite upset when he got out.

Other teams went into the course, while Sakura, Naruto and Shikamaru waited for their turn. The ones coming out seemed to have been hit by some kind of paint, trap's probably or they were soaked.

"Naruto, Sakura and Shikamaru, it's your turn." Iruka said opening the door for the obstacle course.

Sakura nodded.

Naruto shouted. "Alright let's get moving guys!"

Shikamaru mumbled. "Troublesome."

The first obstacle was a hole that they had to jump over with a gathering chakra into their legs, it was pretty easy, the next obstacle was crossing a hall were various jets of water would shoot from time to time, the trick was too observe the pattern and memorize it. The three crossed the first row of jets well, at the second Naruto was the first to cross, but soon found himself unable to move, just then a jet of water shoot and would most definitely have soaked Naruto.

"**Kage mane no jutsu success! (Shadow imitation technique)" **Shikamaru's shadow was extended all the way to Naruto's stopping the blond from moving. "That jet over there doesn't fire in the same regular way as the others that shots one time for each four of the others, so look out."

"Gee Thanks Shikamaru!" Naruto thanked the boy as the he felt a drop of sweat fall down his face.

They continued their way, the next room was a target practice room with various moving tagets that had to be hit to clear the passage to the next one, this was relatively easy, but as soon as they got into the next room Shikamru and Naruto where pulled down to the floor.

"Look out!" Sakura screamed as she pulled them to the ground, as soon as they hit the ground, something slammed in the wall behind it. Paint balls. This room simulated the conditions of a battle were the shinobi would be under attack and would have to dodge incoming weapons, this tested mostly the awareness of the team and their dodging skills. They went one at a time dodging the barrage of paintballs. The paint balls didn't fire very often but they would hit you if unprepared.

The last of the two rooms had three wooden dummies that had to be hit in various vital points, the catch was that the dummies would rotate, Sakura and Shikamaru hit theirs successfully but Naruto had a little difficulty hitting the last point on the dummy's back, the blond quickly lost his patience.

"Step back you guys!" Naruto told them as he began to make hand seals, finishing in a dragon seal. He slapped his hand together. "**Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough).** An explosion of wind shot Naruto's location destroying the wooden dummies.

Sakura face palmed. "Way to go overboard, Naruto! Now how are we going to the next room!" She berated the blond boy.

Behind the last door opened.

"_Why do I even try?" _Sakura thought as she shook her head. **"Because you feel like it?"**

The last obstacle room had a big tank with water which they would have to cross with the help of a rope at the middle of the tank. They again would have to use chakra enchanced jumps.

When Sakura reached the other edge she quickly ducked from another barrage of paint balls. This time they had to jump through several stones in a zig-zag way as the paint balls were fired in a paced rate, left, right with some delay between the each ball.

They passed the last obstacle, with that they got out of the obstacle course.

"Very well guys you only 12 minutes and lost no points!" Iruka gave them a thumbs up as they got out.

**-X0X-**

Later at lunch Naruto and Sakura stood under a tree, both had kept silent for some time, to Naruto it seemed that Sakura was still mad for seeing her like he had during their Camping trip. He didn't mean to see her in such a way, but accidents happen from time to time.

"Sakura-chan!" He called.

She glanced at him. "Yeah?" What did he want?

"Are you still mad at me? For you know…" The boy stopped at the last part.

"Yes I am!" Sakura said glaring at Naruto. "Don't think just because I'm lunching with you that I've forgiven you for that stunt."

"But I already said I'm sorry I didn't mean to do it! I'm serious!" He pleaded her. "I don't want you to be mad at me! Not you!"

Sakura looked at the boy' eyes, his blue eyes showed sincerity, his face showed a rare sad expression. She continued looking at his eyes, getting lost at his oceans of blue.

"Will you forgive me?" He asked

Sakura sighed, Naruto showed that he regretted what he had done and was now asking for her forgiveness for one side she wanted to pass him the message that she didn't tolerate perverts, but on another side seeing a sad expression on Naruto's face was to strange for her. He never showed sadness, never, he was always smiling, he was the one who made people feel better not the other way around. So Sakura felt compelled to help the boy.

"Yes Naruto I forgive you." Sakura finally said.

"Thank you! Thank You! Thank you!" He repeated several times while he gave her a hug.

Sakura felt the same sense of safety she usually felt when she was this close to Naruto, it comforted her to be this close to him. She felt herself blushing a little when she felt his body touching hers, he had pretty strong muscles for his age, a result of all the physical training he had gone through, starting before even coming to her class, without thinking she hugged him back, resting her head on his shoulder. She felt safe in his arms and she didn't want that feeling to go away.

"Naruto-kun?" She called.

"Sakura-chan?" He looked at her.

Sakura whispered in his ear. "If you do something like that again I'll kick your ass!" Naruto paled.

**-X0X-**

**A/N: Done guys, this chapter was smaller than the last since I didn't have as much to talk as the last one, still I think this last scene was kinda sweet What do you guys think tell me. Also we'll be getting into canon next chapter. See ya. Don't forget to review.**

**For Naruto and Sakura's third teammate:**

**-Kiba**

**-Shikamaru**

**-or should I keep the original team 7 set up?**

**Choose.**


	7. Graduation

**Chapter 7 – Graduation**

Graduation was close and as supposed every student attended class, well if you didn't include the case of one Uzumaki Naruto, Sakura and Kiba were confused as to why Naruto wasn't with them in class, since he wanted to become a ninja just like them even more if possible.

"Why isn't he here yet? He's normally a little late but never this late?" Sakura asked, it was so strange, their graduation exam was tomorrow and Naruto wasn't attending class. "This so strange!"

"Do you think he may sick or something all that ramen he eats may be finally harming his health?" Kiba too was confused. "Or his he planning another one of his pranks! You know his goodbye prank now that he is going to graduate!"

"Maybe Kiba, maybe!" Sakura wondered.

"If he is pulling a prank I hope he pulls something big!" Kiba said hopefully with Akamaru barking in agreement. "I'm gonna miss his pranks!"

"He won't get in trouble anymore at least!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Ah come on don't be like that we already know that you love this kind of stuff!" Kiba punched Sakura lightly on the shoulder, only to have Sakura do the same, except Sakura punches weren't exactly light ones.

"You know damn well I do like them Kiba but I also don't want Naruto failing because of his pranks." She told the boy.

Their teacher entered the classroom, taking note on the absence of Naruto, believing he was just running a little late, he decided to proceed with class.

But as time passed, Iruka became more and more suspicious, something was definitely wrong with Naruto, the boy was never that late for a class, Iruka's mind started working on the various possibilities, his mind screamed prank.

"_Oh please not today graduation exam is tomorrow please Naruto tell me you slept in but please no pranks!" _ Iruka thought.

Suddenly a ninja entered the classroom. "Iruka-san! We need your help it's Naruto he did it again!"

Iruka groaned. _"Why Naruto Why?" _he screamed mentally.

The entire classroom picked up in interest, Naruto had pulled another one of his pranks, the students listened closely trying to know what the blond had done.

"I'm going to help catch Naruto, so stay here and don't destroy the room please" Iruka informed leaving the classroom.

"Haha I knew he was going to pull a prank! Oh man I can't to see what he did!" Kiba shouted to Sakura.

Hitting him over the top of the head she told him. "Keep quiet Kiba and yeah I can't wait to see what he did this time too!" Sakura said with a smile. **"Oh I love this kind of stuff!" **Her inner exclaimed in her mind.

**-X0X-**

Meanwhile our hero was at the Hokage Mountain, he had gotten up really early this morning, preparing to pull his last great prank. He was hanging on the mountain, with a harness, that he had bought under an henge, the paint cans were gotten in the same process.

The boy calmly painted the Faces of the Hokages, changing the position ever so often, he was amazed that till now no one had seen him.

"_Sakura-chan and Kiba will be worried but this is my last prank I probably won't have time for them when I become a Genin." _Naruto thought. _"With all that training I got from nee-chan I didn't have much time to do this! I wonder what we'll be the reaction of the guys at the academy! I can't wait to see Iruka-sensei's face when he sees this!"_

Naruto continued painting the line of mucus on the Nidaime's nose with white paint.

While he painted he wondered. _"What are they doing right now, Sakura-chan, Kiba, nee-chan, well knowing nee-chan she is either on a mission or she's munching Dango!"_

**-X0X-**

In one of the many restaurants that served Dango across town, Anko sneezed. "Someone must be talking about me, maybe it's Iruka-kun!" She said with a perverted smile. "Maybe I should give him a little visit at the academy, I'm sure he'd love it!"

She continued to munch her dango along with sweet been soup.

"Ah that hit's the spot!" Anko sighed in delight as she left the restaurant.

She then took the path to the Academy. Along the way she noticed that several people were pointing to the Hokage Mountain.

"_Yeah it's plain old Hokage Mountain guys! It's been there for years! It has four carved faces and it's going to have more faces with the years!" _She thought sarcastically.

Along the road she caught a sight she wouldn't expect at this hour of the day. Iruka, she waved at him. "Iruka-kun! Iruka-kun!" He looked in her direction, she quickly caught up with him. "What are you doing here at a time like this shouldn't you be at the academy giving classes, the graduation is tomorrow isn't it?"

So strange, Iruka was always so zealous about his students, he always showed great care for them, so being out at this hour when he should be at the Academy was very, very strange. Something was definitely up.

"Uh.. hey Anko-chan!!" He said the smile he usually gave when he greeted people was not present. "I would love to stay and chat but right now is not a good moment."

Anko threw her arms around him. "Oh come on Iruka-kun! Stay a little with your old pal Anko." What did she need to do to get this man, she thought. He was always so kind so it wouldn't have surprised her if he had quite a big group of women trying to get him to themselves, but that wasn't the case, to most Iruka was just the Academy teacher.

"I'm sorry Anko but I really can't there's trouble going on!" He told her.

"Trouble? What do you mean Iruka-kun?" She asked him.

The scarred chunin simply pointed to a direction, she followed the direction with her eyes.

"Iruka-kun that's the Hokage Mountain plain old Hokage Mountain!" She said in a bored tone.

"Look better at the mountain do you notice anything strange?" Iruka instructed her to look again.

Anko looked again. "It's the Hokage mountain you know! There's the four faces! The Yondaime as a sun painted on his cheek…" Anko's eyes widened. The Hokage faces were all painted. "Is the one who did this the one I think it is?"

"Naruto?" She nodded. "Yeah they say it's him!"

Anko doubled over clutching her sides, tears of laughter threatening to fall and her snickers escalated in to full a booming laugh.

"You're kidding… Haha… right?" She asked while laughing, Iruka's head shake gave her the answer she needed.

If possible she laughed even louder. The day was turning out perfect, first she had a nice breakfast of her favorite food and now her otouto had just pulled one of the greatest pranks ever in all history of Konoha and the chase that would ensue after they get to where he was. This day was going to be a good one for Anko.

"Otouto your just too much!" She said jumping to a roof top to see the chase.

**-X0X-**

Today the Sandaime, was having a rare break, he didn't have any paperwork to do, so he decided to spent his time doing calligraphy, in front of him was a big white cloth with a big black kanji. That would make a nice new banner for the Sarutobi compound.

Sarutobi thought about the last year and what had gone through. Naruto, failing his exam, the council especially Danzo trying to take the boy under his wing to turn him into a weapon, a mission that had almost gone wrong and that could have escalated into war, so much trouble.

"_Kushina-chan, Minato-kun! how would you think of the life your son has, would you be proud of him, would you be disappointed with how he is treated?" _He thought about the boy's parents, especially his mother, she had disappeared from her hospital room without trace in the day she gave birth to the boy, the medics had told him that she had run out of the hospital after her husband and that they hadn't been able to stop her, of course he didn't believe that, the woman had been very tired after giving birth to the boy, all in all he suspected Danzo had his hand on this but he had no proof of that, so he couldn't charge him with the guilt. Since the disbanding of his ROOT that the man had been one of his worst political enemies, he had already been but after that he became even worse interfering with every decision he made, trying to use the council to overrule him.

Again his thoughts drifted to Kushina, he remembered the day she had come asking to become a ninja of Konoha, after the destruction of Uzugakure No Sato, he had allowed her to join ANBU and they effectively, so they thought hid her identity from the general populace and the regular shinobi forces, only a select few knowing the true identity of the famed ANBU captain known only has Niiroi Arashi. Now she was presumed to be dead, leaving her son orphaned. Alas he didn't know the shock he would be getting in a few months.

"Hokage-sama! Hokage-sama!" A chunin called as he entered the room.

Putting down his pipe, the old hokage asked. "What it is it?"

The young chunin put his hands on his knees and took a breath. "It's Naruto… Hokage-sama…"

Sarutobi groaned. "What did the boy do this time?" He asked.

"He… defaced the Hokage Mountain!" The chunin said.

"_There it goes my peace!" _The old Hokage thought.

**-X0X-**

At the ANBU headquarters an alert was issued.

The Captain turned to the green ANBU rookies. "Listen up maggots we're going to do tracking training in town!"

"Tracking training?" One of the rookies asked.

"Yes tracking training! This will be your target." He passed them photos of Naruto sticking his tongue out.

"This kid!" Most rookies, looked at the captain like he had gone crazy.

"Yes that kid! Your target his Uzumaki Naruto, he just pulled another one of his pranks, a message has been sent to dispatch a Squad to help catch the boy!" The captain told them.

"But he' just a kid!" One of the rookies protested. "He's not a genin even!"

"Boy! You know not what you talk! Do you remember that D-rank mission where you have to catch that blasted cat!?" The captain asked.

Most trainees flinched and some placed hands in front of their crotches.

"Well now think of a tamer cat, much wittier and ten times harder to catch and that is Uzumaki Naruto, your target." The poor trainees paled.

**-X0X-**

"Naruto stop what you're doing right now!" Iruka screamed from one of the windows below the Mountain's faces.

The boy flinched. _"Crap its Iruka-sensei! Time to bail out." _One of his favorite parts of pulling pranks came, the Chase, Naruto loved it, the attention he got during his pranks was refreshing in the past but now it was for the thrill of it, who wouldn't love to see a disoriented ANBU member.

The boy pulled his ropes and began a descent at great speed, quickly leaving his equipment behind, he ran as fast as he could with chunin hot on his trail.

"Naruto! Get back here you little rascal!" One of them shouted. "You're gonna pay for what you did to the Hokage Mountain."

"_Time to show off." _He thought with a mischievous grin. He turned back wards and started running with his back turned to the way he was going. Naruto stuck out his tongue. "Hey hurry up slowpokes you'll never catch me like that!"

The boy cackled as he saw the Chunins pick up on speed, his grin widened as he saw the crowd of people in front of him. Mingling among them he made a cross-shaped hand-seal. **"Kage-bunshin no jutsu!" **two clones appeared and started running along with him.

As soon as they got out of the crowd area Naruto ordered his clones. "Split." The three equal forms took different turns.

The chunins chasing the boy followed one of his clones, while the real took another turn. "Too easy!" He said.

Another group of chunin joined the chase this time they were more. "_Ah you send more guys this time! Nice going Jiji. But that's not enough!" _Naruto now took off to the roofs.

Jumping from roof to roof the boy was able to quickly distance himself from his chasers. Just when he was about to jump back down he hit someone's chest.

**-X0X-**

"Oh it's starting!" Anko said giggling like a little schoolgirl, she had somehow gotten a hold of a large bucket of popcorn.

She watched as the boy, started running. The chase was going to be good, he was now much faster.

"Hn showoff!" she said when she saw him running backwards.

"Yes good, thinking!" she commented while eating popcorn, when the boy mingled with the crowds. "Is he using it?" she asked herself as three Naruto's ran out of the crowd and took off in different turns. "Yup he used it."

The new group of Chunin started chasing. "Go to the rooftops! To the rooftops! YES!" She shouted as the boy made the chunin eat dust.

"Oh crap! It's over!" She said when the boy hit the chest of an ANBU.

**-X0X-**

Naruto hit the ANBU chest hard, he rubbed his head.

"It's over Uzumaki surrender yourself!" The ANBU demanded as the rest of his team surrounded him.

The boy shook his head. _"These guys must be rookies! They don't know that I won't give up that easily." _He lifted his in the air. "Okay you got me... or not!" from his hands fell a pair of smoke bombs.

The smoke screen gave the boy his opening which he took immediately, nearby he heard an ANBU mutter. "Damn rookies!". Probably the captain. "Where the heck did he get smoke bombs?" The captain wondered.

"WAY TO GO OTOUTO!!" A loud voice shouted, that Naruto identified as his Nee-chan, he waved at her and flashed her a grin, before continuing running.

The chase continued for an hour before Naruto decided he had enough.

Hiding himself with a camouflage blanket he watched as his chasers ran past him, when they were out of sight. He uncovered himself.

"Haha suckers! They'll never catch me!" He boasted.

"Oh really Naruto!" His teacher's voice said behind him.

"_Ah crap!" _he thought while he was tied up and dragged back to the Academy

**-X0X-**

At the Academy the students laughed at the sight of their classmate being dragged by their teacher to the classroom.

"Naruto! What do you think you were doing out of class causing trouble nonetheless!" Iruka reprimanded the boy. "The exam is tomorrow and you failed it already two times! Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Bah! I'll pass it no sweat Iruka-sensei you'll see!" Naruto said grinning.

"And what were you doing painting the Hokage Mountain! Defacing a monument of Konoha! You could get in trouble for vandalism, you know!" Iruka continued berating the blond boy.

Naruto had a comical hurt look on his face. "Vandalism? You call that vandalism, that's art Iruka-sensei!" He announced.

His classmates laughed at the teacher vs student squabble.

"That's it Naruto your going to clean to the faces as detention!" His teacher shouted, Naruto was able to get in his nerves.

"Whatever!"The boy grumbled.

Iruka eyebrow twitched. "Everyone get down here! We're going to do a review on the henge counting for grade"

The kids groaned, because of Naruto they were going to have a review on the henge counting for grade.

"Damn it Naruto! It's all your fault!" Ino said as she looked at his tied up form.

"Man this is so troublesome!" Shikamaru exclaimed in a sleepy tone. "I was having such a good nap!"

"Okay guys well start with the review. First-" Iruka felt a pair of arms embrace him from behind.

"Iruka-kun" a voice breathed on his ear.

"Naruto!" The teacher exclaimed.

"Huh… Iruka-sensei I'm right here!" And indeed he was still on the same place tied up.

"Iruka-kun don't pick on otouto will you?" The voice said again.

"A-a-anko-chan!" The teacher stuttered.

"Oh I love when you say my name like that Iruka-kun! I wish I could spend more time here with you, but I can't." Anko licked Iruka's ear, the chunin shivered.

"Anko-chan! There are children here!" Iruka was sweating profusely, the woman behind him was such a tease.

"Oh yes! Sorry for that Iruka-kun! We'll talk later!" A resounding smack was heard, Iruka was beat red.

"Nice prank by the way otouto and that chase completely won my day!" She said as she left.

"W-e-e-ell let's get going. Please henge into me." Iruka stuttered.

The students laughed at his teacher's misfortune.

**-X0X-**

"Say Naruto why did do that to the Hokage faces?" Iruka asked Naruto during dinner. They spent the whole afternoon and a part of the night at the Mountain, if Iruka hadn't offered to buy him dinner at Ichiraku's, they might have spent more.

"Someday I'm going to Hokage! I'm going to be greater than them all even the Yondaime who defeated the Kyuubi twelve years ago. This is my statement that I'll be greater than them all!" Naruto exclaimed proudly.

"If you pass your exam tomorrow you'll be a Genin, you know you can't go around doing things like that!" Iruka told him.

Naruto stared at his ramen. "I know that Iruka-sensei this was kinda like my last great prank, since I'll probably be busy with missions and training! But you have got to say that was fun." The boy said with a grin.

Iruka shook his head. "It was fun, I still don't get how are you able to fool chunin when you're not a genin even…"

"…and ANBU!" Naruto interrupted.

"Yes ANBU too, but to pull that in plain sight? I think that explain why you're the best student at stealth of the whole class." Iruka said proud of the boy beside him.

The blond opened his mouth in amazement. "I am?" he questioned, his answer was a nod from Iruka.

"You know Naruto, you and I are a lot like!" the scarred chunin said.

"We are?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah I was a lot like you when I was your age. I lost my parents at the attack of the Kyuubi, they were ninjas and I didn't have other relatives, so I was left all alone, no one paid attention to me, so I became the class clown, because in that way I would get the attention no one gave me, to stave off the loneliness." Iruka told his story to Naruto.

Naruto nodded listening to his teacher's story.

"What I want to say that you can't be like you are anymore, in a sense, you'll be a Shinobi, a protector of the village, you'll have to be more serious." Iruka told the boy.

The boy nodded. "I know that Iruka-sensei, I want to be Hokage after all! I'll be the protector of the Village and that's what I will do! Believe it!"

"Neh? Iruka-sensei?" The boy turned to the chunin.

"Yeah?" Iruka glanced at the boy while eating his bowl of ramen.

"Can I try your hitei-ite? You know to see how it feels to have one!"

Iruka touched his hitei-ite. "This one? You'll have to get yours tomorrow."

"Meany!"

**-X0X-**

The next day Naruto woke up excitedly, today was the graduation exam and he was ready to rock it. He quickly arranged himself.

He stopped at Ichiraku's for a special breakfast.

"Good morning Naruto-kun!" Ayame said as soon as he entered the restaurant.

"Good morning Ayame-nee-chan!" He replied.

"Oi Naruto! Sit down today it's on the house! It's the graduation exam today right? So consider a good luck gift!" Teuchi gave the boy a smile. "What's your order then?"

"I'll have large pork ramen with a boiled egg!" Naruto ordered his ramen.

Teuchi went to work on the boy's Ramen, doing as always his best for the boy to have a nice meal.

"So Naruto-kun do you think you're going pass the Exam?" Ayame asked him.

The boy gave her a wide smile. "I'm not going to pass that Exam Ayame-nee-chan! I'm gonna rock it! And then I'll be one step closer to being Hokage! Believe it!"

"That's good Naruto-kun! You've been trying so hard! You deserve it!" She ruffled Naruto's hair a bit.

After his ramen was ready, Naruto ate at a rare slow pace savoring it like it would be his last, as always the ramen was top-notch, if the look in Naruto's face could tell anything.

"Well I'm going!" He got up to leave, but Ayame stopped him.

"Wait! I have something for you!" Ayame reached down and kissed his cheek. "This is for good luck!" She said as she ruffled his hair again.

His classroom was already half full when he reached the Academy, Sakura of course was already there. She waved at him.

"Good morning Naruto-kun! Are ready for the Exam?" She asked him.

"Of course I am Sakura-chan! I trust you are too!"

"Yes I am!" She stated.

Both sat down talking about what they thought that would happen in the future, Naruto of course said he wanted to become Hokage, Sakura told him that when she entered the Academy she wanted to be a ninja specializing in Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, but now she was contemplating being a medic ninja.

"Medic-ninja?" The blond asked.

"Yes I heard there are few medic ninjas in the village, so I thought being one would be pretty useful to it! Also it's said that medical ninjutsu requires quite a bit of chakra control, maybe I could pull it off with mine!" She said in a hopeful tone.

"You'll do it I'm sure you're very very smart!" He smiled at her.

They continued talking various random themes with Kiba who arrived a while later. The last to enter the classroom was Iruka accompanied by his assistant Mizuki.

"Hello! Today as you know we'll be Having the Graduation Exams, Me and Mizuki will be on the exam room, you'll come when we call your name, you'll be required to do the Bunshin no jutsu to pass, now let's start first off his…" Iruka looked at his clipboard. " Aburame Shino."

The Aburame heir stood up and followed his teachers, minutes later he came back with a hitei-ite tied on his forehead.

Several other students were called to the room all of them coming with hitei-ite's and big smiles.

"Haruno Sakura!" Sakura's name was called.

Naruto gave her a pat on her shoulder and smiled at her. "Good luck Sakura-chan!"

"Thanks Naruto-kun!" She entered the room.

For a few minutes, Naruto stood there silently rooting for Sakura to pass her test. The door from the room finally opened again.

Naruto looked intently, Sakura walked out.

On the top of her head was tied a hitei-ite like a headband, Naruto smiled broadly.

A purple haired girl by the name of Ami snorted. "Oh look her forehead is so big that the hitei-ite doesn't fit, so she as to use it like a headband!" She made of fun of the pink-haired girl.

Sakura was about to retort but a feeling of dread stopped her.

Naruto didn't like the girls comment on his Sakura-chan, wait she wasn't she wasn't his… yet, anyway the boy glared at the girl and some students could have sworn that Naruto's eyes had flashed red for a moment.

"Shut up Ami! Don't talk to Sakura-chan like that you pathetic excuse of a Kunoichi! Sakura-chan is a million times better than you, if I hear you insulting her again I'll kick your ass! You heard me? I'll kick your ass." Naruto said angrily to her before turning back to the front were Sakura stood blushing, the feeling of dread was lifted, being replaced with a very warm feeling in Sakura's chest.

"You didn't have to do that! I could have handled her!" Sakura said when she reached her seat.

"I know that Sakura-chan! But I didn't like what she said and you probably would have sent her to the hospital if she insulted you more! I didn't want you to get in trouble." He said smiling at her.

"Inuzuka Kiba."

"Finally! Let's go Akamaru! We have an Exam to pass!" Kiba declared loudly.

He walked to the room. Moments later a loud "YYYAAAAHHHOOO!" was heard from the room.

Kiba came from the room wearing a hitei-ite, He had a grin in his face.

"Way to go Kiba!" The two boys pounded their fists as Kiba passed near Naruto.

A few more names were called and as usual the kids came wearing hitei-ites.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

The dark haired boy stood up and walked to the room, ignoring the shouts of his fangirls.

"Go Sasuke-kun!"

"I believe in you Sasuke-kun!"

"Sasuke-kun I love you!"

Naruto turned to kiba. "You know I don't envy the guy, those fangirls must pretty annoying!" Kiba nodded at Naruto's statement.

Moments later, Sasuke too walked out of the classroom wearing his new hitei-ite on his forehead.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"Yatta! It's my turn!" The boy said jumping to his feet. He rushed to the room.

The room was small, his teachers sat at a table while near them on a smaller table were a few hitei-ite's.

"_I'm taking one of those with me today!" _ He thought eying the hitei-ite's intently.

"Ok Naruto, you have perform the Bunshin no jutsu!" Iruka told him.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheppishly. "Can I do any kind of bunshin?" He asked.

"Like you could do any bunshin!" Mizuki snorted silently.

Naruto's attention was however turned to Iruka. "Well we never specify the kind of bunshin it's just that is rare to an academy student to know more than the Academy bunshin, but there were a few cases on the past, so I think you can do it!"

The boy smiled. "Thank's Iruka-sensei!" He then made a cross shaped hand-seal. The amount of chakra used was astounding to Iruka and Mizuki. "**Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"**

Twenty shadow clones appeared in the classroom.

"So do I pass?" They asked.

Iruka's eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets. "Y-y-yeah! YOU PASS NARUTO! Congratulations!"

"Yatta! I'm a ninja, ninja, ninja!" The boy bounced on his feet.

**-X0X-**

"Yatta!"

"Well I guess that answers our question!" Kiba said. "The shorty became a ninja!"

Sakura punched him in the arm. "Don't call him a shorty!"

"Ouch! Oh c'mon Sakura! You know he's short!" Kiba grinned at her. "Maybe it's because you'll need to lean down to kiss him and not the other way around huh?"

"Naruto and Sakura sitting on a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" The dog boy made kissing noises.

The girl balled her fists to beat the crap out of Kiba, when Naruto walked out of the room.

Kiba sighed. "Saved by the blondie!" He whispered to himself. Akamaru agreed.

As he walked out of the room, Naruto's blue eyes met Sasuke's onyx ones.

They stood there staring at each other, studying the other one, then they sent a curt nod to each other, Naruto smiled a little when he walked to his seat.

"Hey Naruto what was that about?" Kiba asked him.

"Nothing." Naruto said.

Beside him Sakura shook her head. "Boys!"

"Yamanaka Ino."

**-X0X-**

"Naruto! Wait up! I need to talk to you!" Mizuki shouted when the boy was leaving the Academy.

The boy stopped to look at his sensei. "Mizuki-sensei! What do you want?" The boy asked, he never liked Mizuki, the man would always glare at him for some reason when he thought Naruto wasn't watching.

"Naruto I have something to tell you it's about the Genin test, the true genin test!" And so Mizuki told the boy that he would have to steal the Village's Forbidden Scroll and meet him at the certain location at 11:00 PM. "Do you undertand it Naruto?"

"Yes sensei I'll do it! You'll see I'll pass this test." Naruto said in a fake cheerful voice.

"Good luck Naruto! I know you can do it!" With that the man left.

Naruto stared at his teacher's retreating back. _"Yeah right! True Genin test my ass, you want to fool me! We'll you'll see Mizuki-teme! Two can play the same Game!"_

**-X0X-**

At about 11:00 PM the ninja community of Konoha was out in search for Naruto who had apparently stolen the Forbidden Scroll, being apparently the key word. After leaving Mizuki Naruto had gone to talk with the Sandaime. Both had concocted a plan to catch Mizuki. Naruto would take the scroll, to the location were Mizuki asked him to be, followed by a squad of ANBU who would then arrest the man for treason.

At the forest Naruto waited for his teacher to come, he had the forbidden scroll opened in front of him, while the boy scanned around for clues of his teacher.

There was a rustle of leaves, his sensei got out of the bushes landing, in front of the boy.

The man was in his usual chunin clothes, but he now carried a pair of Fuuma Shuriken in his back.

"Good to see you already here Naruto!" Mizuki said. "Now be a good boy and give me that scroll!"

Naruto stood up and folded the scroll back. "I don't think so Mizuki-teme!" Naruto said with a grin. "I shouldn't give this scroll to a filthy traitor like you!"

Mizuki's eyes widened. "Oh so you know about it huh?"

The boy grinned even more."Yeah I know about! You're not gonna escape Mizuki-teme!"

"And who's going to stop me you?" Mizuki taunted. "Your just a genin and I'm a chunin I outrank you in both strength and experience!"

"I would take you on but I think I'll just leave you to them!" Naruto snapped his fingers.

Out of the Shadows a squad of ANBU appeared, quickly surrounding the traitor with their ninjatos pointed at his neck. "You have nowhere to go Mizuki! Surrender immediately! You'll be taken to ANBU Interrogation cells were the Information will be taken from you! And after that you'll be put on trial for treason and you know what's the penalty for treason." With that the cat masked ANBU captain chopped the traitor neck knocking him out.

The ANBU nodded at Naruto. "Good work Uzumaki-san, let us return to the Hokage Tower, the Sandaime awaits us!"

**-X0X-**

The Sandaime smiled behind his desk. "I have to say that your wit surprised me but with you being Konoha's number one prankster it shouldn't really be surprised. Therefore I reward with a B-rank mission pay for helping catch a traitor Naruto-kun. Also you will have this going as a B-ranked mission on your record."

"No problem Jiji, It's the job of a future Hokage to protect the Village!" The boy smiled at the Hokage.

"Yes it is Naruto-kun and you did very well! I'm pleased to see that you care about the village so much." The Hokage wondered how he would react to what he was about to tell. "But now we must talk about a very serious matter!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What matter?" He asked.

Sarutobi sighed and prepared to drop the bomb. "What I'm about to tell you is an S-class secret." He explained. "You know about the story of the Kyuubi and how the Yondaime defeated it don't you?" The boy nodded eagerly. "Well that night the Yondaime didn't really defeated it, instead he created a Jinchuuriki!"

" A Jinchuuriki? What's that?" The boy asked.

"Yes a Jinchuuriki. Jinchuuriki means power of the human sacrifice. They are individuals who have the bijuu, the nine tailed beasts sealed in them." The Sandaime explained.

"So he sealed it inside someone?" Naruto was starting to add things, the hatred towards him, and his birthday. "Is it me?" He asked.

"That night a boy was born, since his chakra coils weren't developed yet, that boy was the one used to be the as container of the Kyuubi, it's jailer and ultimately his destroyer." The Hokage said sadly. "Yes that boy was you Naruto-kun."

Naruto's head fell. "So I'm a demon like the villagers say?"

The hokage shook his head. "No Naruto you are a hero! Thanks to your sacrifice Konoha wasn't destroyed. Naruto-kun the Yondaime believed in you, because only a boy with a heart as pure as yours could hold the Kyuubi without being corrupted. Whatever people tell you, you are you, you are Uzumaki Naruto, Genin of Konoha, and Future Hokage hopefully!"

The boy smiled. "Thanks for telling me Jiji!"

"Will you be ok?"

"Don't worry I will!"

**-X0X-**

**A/N: Chapter done, hop you liked it.**

**Also thanks for every one for your reviews, now the result of the voting was…**

**Shikamaru-4**

**Kiba-8**

**Sasuke-10**

**So Sasuke won, but I'm not sure if I should use him Tell me what you think. Btw I definitely won't use Shikamaru.**


	8. Kakashi's Test

**A/N: The original team 7 will be easier to write in this fic as there are several things that would make Sasuke go to team 7, political problems mostly. Also the ones who voted for Sasuke were more and gave better arguments and as a NaruSaku fan good arguments are a thing that I respect much. Other thin there is a fic that already uses the NARUSAKUKIBA team, it's ****Precious People** **by peanutbutter126, an awesome fic one of my actual favorites and I don't wish to copy it.**

**Chapter 8 – Kakashi's Test.**

**-X0X-**

Sarutobi sighed looking at the assembled jonin in his office, today Sunday they were going to take care of selecting the teams for this year, he looked around at his assembled jonin, Gekko Hayate, Shiranui Genma, Namiashi Raidou, Yamashiro Aoba, his son Sarutobi Asuma, a newly promoted jonin Yuhi Kurenai with her distinct red eyes and some others, he noticed also that Kakashi was running late as always.

He was seriously thinking in starting to threat Kakashi of banning Icha Icha books if he didn't start attending meetings in proper hours, they were waiting for the man for at least an hour now and some of the jonin were starting to get impatient, while others just kept their calm façades knowing of their silver haired comrade's tardiness a long time ago.

Yuhi Kurenai a newly appointed jonin, turned to the fellow Tokubetsu jonin, Gekko Hayate. "Is it normal of him to be this late?" She wondered why the man would be this late.

Hayate coughed a little. "Yes cough Kakashi-san is normally this late cough." The man said between coughs. "I'm cough Gekko Hayate, cough, your new cough aren't you?"

Kurenai nodded. "Yes I'm Yuhi Kurenai, pleased to meet you! Hayate-san!"

"Likewise!" the man declared.

"Man were the heck is Kakashi! Can't that guy get on time for once! I'm already out of cigars!" A man with black hair dressed in a jonin outfit groaned, he had also a light blue loincloth with the red kanji for fire inside a black circle. "Hey there Hayate and who might you be?" He asked Kurenai.

"Yuhi Kurenai and you?" She said looking at the man.

"Sarutobi Asuma !" He replied smiling at the red eyed woman. "And I have to say you have beautiful eyes!" He gave her a charming smile.

"Thank you! Um… were you a part of the Twelve ninja Guardians?" Kurenai asked having seen the loincloth.

Asuma pointed to it. "Yeah I was a part of the Twelve Ninja Guardians! Got myself a nice 35 million ryo bounty on my head you know!" Again he gave her a charming smile.

"Don't tell me you're still using the same hit tactics on women Asuma!" A voice said from front of the room.

Everyone turned to where it came from there, on the window stood none other than Hatake Kakashi. Several people sighed in relief, the guy was here now after only an hour of waiting, they had to say it was positive.

"Yo!" The Cyclops waved at the occupants of the room.

"Damn it Kakashi must you always ruin my story!" Asuma shouted at the silver haired man.

"Oh let's face it Asuma, your just jealous of me, since I have the record of being the youngest student to ever graduate the academy, being one of the best ANBU captains ever and I have a kill on sight order inmost bingo books." Kakashi calmly said.

The former Ninja guardian seethed , here he was trying to hit on the gorgeous woman next to him and Kakashi spoiled it all. _"Where's Gai when you need him!"_

Hayate bowed at the man. "Kakashi-taichou!"

"Hello there Hayate! I hope you and Yugao are doing well!" Kakashi greeted back.

The brown haired swordsman nodded. "Yes we are well thank you for asking."

The Hokage cleared his throat. "If you wouldn't mind I would like to start this meeting, which his already late due to a certain someone." He glared at Kakashi as he said this. "We are here with the objective of assigning teams fresh from the academy for you to test if they're worthy of becoming Genin."

"This time we have a total of nine teams, waiting to be tested by you, as you know only 3 teams will have the right to become Genin, the others will be washed out to the academy." The Hokage said. "Now, I have the information here with the teams and who we decided they will be assigned to." The Hokage looked the team placements and sighed. "Team 1 composed of…" He started telling the teams and the names.

"Team 7 will be composed of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke, under Hatake Kakashi!" The jonins around the room gasped.

"What? That team is too inbalanced! Your putting two middle class students with the top one, isn't supposed to be to be top rankers with the lower ranker?" A jonin objected.

"It is! But this is a decision of the council!" The Hokage explained.

"Are you sure that safe Hokage-sama? Naruto is quite powerful and Sasuke might get jealous of his power!" Kakashi said thinking about the trouble this team was about to give him if they passed.

"I had no power over the choice of this team Kakashi! This team was made and approved by the council, and even I don't have a word on it!" The Hokage again explained. "Anyway following Team 8 will be composed off Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino under Yuhi Kurenai! Team 9 is still active from last year finally Team 10 will be composed of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji under Sarutobi Asuma! Be tomorrow at the academy at 03:00PM!"

"Hokage-Sama! What's the reason I was gotten this team? There's more to it isn't there?" Kakashi was sure there was something going on to be putting Naruto and Sasuke together there had to be another motive beyond the obvious, underneath the underneath.

Sarutobi sighed. "I think it's quite easy to see why! You never once passed a team and please let me be wrong this one will go the same path, the council mainly Danzo wishes to acquire Naruto because of the Kyuubi and Sasuke because of the Sharingan, with two as powerful as them under their wing they'll be unstoppable in this Village! They might as well overthrow me. All we can do now is having faith that your team will be able to pass the test." The Hokage said in a serious tone. "If they don't we will have to place both Naruto and Sasuke under ANBU watch again to prevent them from being used as weapons by Danzo or the coucil. I know that Danzo is itchy to get his hands on them!"

Kakashi bowed his head. "Your right Hokage-sama! We have to do faith! But there's something the council did and shouldn't have done?" Kakashi said with a knowing smile.

"What is it Kakashi?" The old Hokage asked wanting what was the council's error.

"Their betting against Naruto!" Kakashi's smile never left his face."You never but never bet against Naruto that boy has the devils luck and wit to boot!"

Sarutobi smiled. "Kakashi the council might have just fallen in his own plan! How could I forget about Naruto like that! I must be really getting old!" The man shook his head with a smile.

**-X0X-**

In a dark chamber the Man known as Danzo sat in contemplation. _"I just placed The Uchiha and the Uzumaki brat, under Hatake, what a great plan, the Uchiha won't let his pride let him work with the Uzumaki and the Haruno, thus making them fail, with that I'll be able to acquire the Kyuubi and the only other sharingan beside mine or Hatake's. Soon I'll shape Konoha at my Image and then no one will be able to stop me , no one this Village will be the greatest power in the world."_

He remembered the night of the Kyuubi's attack. The event had killed many ninja but something that made their Sacrifice look like nothing came from it, a jinchuuriki. Konoha didn't believe in training people as weapons, so all the power of the Kyuubi was going to waste while the Uzumaki kid roamed around the Village untamed. _"What a weapon he'll make when I get him no one will stand before me."_

That night Danzo had committed of the most atrocious crimes ever, he denied a son its mother. _"That woman was a risk in my plan, she had to be removed so I could appropriate the Kyuubi, she should be dead by now, leaking her identity to the enemies she made before coming to Konoha was the right thing to do. Uzumaki Kushina, heir to the leadership of the former Village of Uzugakure no Sato, you're nothing but dust and memories now, I definitely made the right choice by disposing of you that night, and those doctors on the hospital were so easy to fool! A simple wide area Genjutsu and you have people thinking what they want."_

Danzo remembered when he gave the order to dispose of the woman.

_Flashback_

_12 years ago_

_Danzo sat on the same dark chamber, in front of him were two of his Root ninjas._

"_So you say that Minato sealed the Kyuubi inside his own kid no less huh? Never would I expect the day were I would see Konoha get its own Jinchuuriki." Danzo said his mind already scheming. " What relatives does that little monster still haves?"_

"_Just his mother Danzo-sama!" Of the Root ninja answered._

"_His mother huh? No problem you two go to the hospital and take her from there, travel three days to another country and then cut her head off, burn her corpse to ashes and then dispose of them on a river." He ordered them._

"_What about the medics in the hospital?" One of them asked._

_The leader of Root frowned at his ninja this one still had a bit of free will, but he was right they had to do something about the doctors of the hospital. "Nagori! __**(Memory)**__"_

_A female Root appeared. "Danzo-sama!"_

"_Go with these two, your mission will be to cast a Wide area Genjutsu that can disable the whole hospital's sense of time. I want you to create an image of Uzumaki Kushina running away from the hospital to the battle ground." He instructed the female._

"_Hai Danzo-sama!" With that hey left._

_Ten days later._

"_Have you been successful in your mission?" Danzo asked his returned operatives._

"_No Danzo-sama!" The three said in unison._

"_How come tell me! Yaiba __**(Blade)**__!" The man demanded._

"_She was able to get up Danzo-sama." Yaiba explained._

"_How come did she get up, she was supposed to be tired from giving birth!" Danzo shouted. "Did she escape?"_

"_She was injured by my tanto in the face, afterwards she fell to the Susamajii river falls!" _

"_The Susamajii river falls, did you found her body?" Danzo asked his men._

"_No Danzo-sama we weren't able to find the body!" Yaiba told him._

_Danzo nodded. He would have to make sure she was dead, but now he had to dispose of these three they if by any bad move of fate proof regarding him or these three was found he would be in bad waters. Danzo quickly took the hidden blade he had in his cane and killed the three ninja with a slash in the throat._

"_No one can know about this!" Danzo said to himself. "No one!"_

_Flashback end_

"_No matter what the Kyuubi will be mine!" _He thought.

**-X0X-**

Naruto woke up excitedly for his new day, today he was going to get assigned his genin team, and he couldn't wait to meet his teammates and jonin-sensei. He hoped to at least have sakura on his team, the two of them worked good together so separating them would be a no-brainer another person he hoped to have on his team was Kiba, but he knew that there was a diminutive possibility of the being on the same team since their skills were so distinct, if not Kiba he wouldn't mind being with Shikamaru or Choji since they were nice to him. He pretty much expected anyone on his team.

He wandered through the streets on his way to the academy, passing by a rather strange looking alley, there one of the walls seemed to have grown brown hair.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Konohamaru that has to be the worst camouflage I have ever seen please stop that!" Naruto said shaking his head.

The small boy got out of his hiding. "Your slick boss, just what I'd expect from my rival!"

He had met the Grandson of the Hokage on Saturday when he was taking care of his registration photo, the kid had barged in the Hokage's, room saying he was going to become the Godaime Hokage, alas the kid tripped in his own scarf and ended up blaming him for doing it, the result was getting hit on the top of the head. After that the kid had seek Naruto to teach him his Oiroke no jutsu. The two of them had then spent their time going to female only hot springs and seeing images of women in bikinis on magazines, research about the female body as Naruto put it, in the end of the day when his teacher had come to get Konohamaru Naruto used an improved version of the Oiroke no jtsu, a mix of Kage bunshin and the perverted Henge.

"Hey boss where are you going?" The young Sarutobi asked seeing his boss so early in the morning.

"You don't know I'm going to the Academy, to get my team assignment, Today I'll become a ninja." Naruto stated proudly.

"What? No fair I want to be a ninja too!" The Sarutobi exclaimed pouting.

The Blond boy ruffled the boy's hair. "You have to get one of these here! See!" He pointed to his hitei-ite. "You'll receive one of these when you become a genin! But you're still too young so you'll have to wait a few years. Oh by the way stop by my place later in the afternoon I have something for you."

"Really! I'll be there boss! You can count on me!" The boy said with his eyes shining wondering what his boss had for him.

Naruto continued walking in direction to the Academy.

"Naruto-kun! Naruto-kun!" A voice called, the boy turned back to see Sakura waiving at him. with Ino at her side.

"Sakura-Chan!" He waved back. "Good morning Sakura-chan! You too Ino!"

"Hello there Naruto!" Ino greeted.

"Good morning Naruto-kun!" Sakura greeted Naruto with a smile. **"NARU-CHAN!!" **Inner Sakura shouted in the pinkettes head. "Are you going to the Academy too?"

"Duh Sakura where do you think he's going? The library!" Ino stated in a matter of fact voice.

"Actually there are certain books I like to read!" Naruto told the platinum blond girl.

"OH!" she said smiling nervously. "Sorry about that!"

"No problem about that!" Naruto waved is hand in front of him."Say do you have anyone you would like to have on your team?"

"Not really I don't care as to who ends up in my team!" Ino said. "Tou-san told me I'll probably be with Shikamaru and Choji, the new Ino-Shika-Chou trio. What about you?"

"Sakura-chan!" The boy simply said, making the pink haired girl blush.

This didn't go unnoticed by Ino who smirked. "I'm sure Saku-chan here wouldn't mind being on your team either!"

"Of course! It's a no brainer putting us in different teams we work together really well how do you say it we have uh… what's the word!" The racked his brain looking for the answer.

"Chemistry?" Ino asked slyly, embarrassing the pinkette more.

"Yeah! It's that Thanks Ino-chan!" Naruto thanked her adding the suffix.

Apparently Sakura didn't like it very much as she glared at Ino. She didn't want another rivalry with her best friend much less about Naruto. _"Keep away from him Ino!", _**"Shannaro! He's mine bitch, leave him alone!", **"_He's not mine! Not like that!",_**"Oh come on you him like that way I know I'm you!", **_"SHUT UP I don't like him that way end of story!", _**"Denial, Denial…"**

Naruto looked strangely at Sakura while the girl ranted with her inner side. He waved his hand in front of her a couple of times, getting no reaction he reached her hear and shouted. "SAKURA-CHAN!!"

BAM!

Sakura punched the boy square on the jaw. "Baka! What the hell were you doing shouting in my hear!" She grabbed the fallen boy and raised her fist.

"W-w-ait S-s-akura-chan, please don't hit me! I was just worried about you! You seemed like you spaced out for awhile I was just worried about you." Naruto explained waving his frantically in front of him.

"Oh sorry about that!" She apologized with a sheepish look on her face.

"Uh no problem Sakura-chan just don't hit me so hard next time!" he rubbing his sore jaw.

"Oi were here lovebirds!" Ino shouted at the two, making them blush at the love birds coment.

**-X0X-**

Inside the classroom they waited, for their sensei, to come. Naruto heard the other students talk about the team they wanted to be, as no surprise, almost every girl except Sakura, Ino and Hinata, said that they wanted to be on their Sasuke-kun's team. Naruto rolled his eyes those girls were so annoying, they couldn't see that the guy didn't want anything to do with them. They were only successful in making his life worse. Naruto from what he had seen from Sasuke, the boy just wanted to be left alone, but no those girls had to go there and nag him, for a date and all.

Speaking of Sasuke he was just entering, the classroom. The last Uchiha looked around the room looking for a seat that would keep him away from his fangirls. He found one near Naruto and his ex-fangirl Sakura. Shrugging the boy just moved to seat. An ex-fangirl is better than an actual fangirl.

Naruto just blinked when he saw the Uchiha move in his direction and seat himself next to him. The blond just stared at the raven haired boy. "Umm… hey!"

Sasuke looked at Naruto from the corner of his eyes. "What?"

The blond continued looking at him. "I said hey!" he repeated.

Furious Glares were shot at Sakura who was sitting with the Fangirls cold object of adoration. "_Is he trying to pick a fight with Sasuke?", _**"GGGOOO NARU-CHAN KICK HIS ASS!"**

"So?" Sasuke asked Naruto, what did he want, he wasn't a fanboy wasn't he?

"So? It's polite to greet a person who greeted you back!" Naruto said rather loudly, making everyone look at the two.

"Tch… Whatever dobe!" Sasuke said not caring.

"Dobe? Who you calling a dope Teme?" Again the blond boy shouted.

A spark seemed to appear between them, those two were going to rivals it seemed.

A cough from the front of the room stopped any more confrontation from the newly declared rivals. Iruka silenced the room with his presence, good he didn't have to use his big head technique to shut them up.

"Hello again my dear students!" Iruka said cheerfully. "Today you begin, a new road in your life as Genin of Konoha, the lowest of the low, from this moment on you'll be recognized as Shinobi and Kunoichi of Konoha, you're going to be put in teams with two more of your classmates under a jonin-sensei that will guide you through your ninja career. May the Will of Fire be with all of you."

"Now for the team placements Team 1…" Skipping over to Team 7. Iruka gasped. " Impossible, uh… Team 7 will be composed by Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto perked up at this. " Haruno Sakura!"

Both genin high-fived each other. "Alright were on the same Team Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted.

"Yes!" Sakura stood up from her seat with her fist raised in a victorious way. **"Shannaro! Love prevails!", **Sakura blushed at her inner comment. _"S-s-h-ut up!"_ She stuttered mentally.

Iruka cleared his throat. "And Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka announced.

The noise in the room stopped for a little while before erupting in a loud. "WHAT?"

Sasuke raised one of his eyebrows, while looking at his newly announced teammates. _"Well at least they're not weak like the others." _The young avenger thought.

"_Ah man I hope we can work out alright! Sasuke is one moody guy! Kami make this work alright!" _Naruto thought.

"_WHAT it can't be the teams are supposed to be in balanced, this team is just too powerful. I should be happy that I'm with Naruto-kun but I can't wait but to feel there's something wrong really wrong. I almost feel like I'm being manipulated by someone." _Sakura felt uneasy.

"Iruka-sensei! How can that be possible you said the teams were supposed to be balanced, but Team 7 is way too powerful! How can this be?" One of the students objected.

"Sorry but I'm not the one who makes the teams the Hokage and the council are the ones who take care of this, so if you have any objections you can go talk with the Hokage or the council." That quickly shut up the students objections.

Now the majority of the female portion of the class was glaring full force at Sakura, who had stolen their opportunity to be with their beloved, not that he loved them, Sasuke-kun.

Iruka sighed. "Following we have Team 8 composed by Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba. Team 9 is still on the active from last year and finally Team 10 will be composed of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji and that's all, now go lunch and be here at 02:00 PM. Your jonin-senseis will be here to pick you up."

"Seems like we aren't togetherhuh? But with Sasuke? You guys must be the most powerful team this year!" Kiba said approaching Naruto and Sakura. "Kinda surprising isn't it!"

"Yeah your right about that Kiba never expected to be in a team with the Uchiha!" Naruto said to his dog using friend.

"Well I have to go guys I'm going to have lunch with my team!" He prepared to leave but before he leaned and whispered to Naruto. "See if you can smack some sense on the Uchiha like you did with Sakura!" Naruto gave the boy a wide mischievous grin.

"Oh don't worry Kiba! I will!" He said to the departing boy. "Oi where's the Teme?" Indeed He wasn't anywhere to be found. "Sakura-chan?"

"He left as soon as Iruka-sensei we could go for lunch." Sakura told him. "Let's go have lunch the two of us."

"_Well Sasuke will be one though cookie to break, but now I have lunch with Sakura-chan."_ Naruto though before heading with Sakura to the outside.

**-X0X-**

Naruto and Sakura sat at one the benches outside the academy, Sakura passed him a bento that her mother made for him. They ate quietly enjoying the peace of the moment.

"Neh Sakura-chan? Who do you think it will be our sensei? Do you think he'll be nice?" Naruto asked breaking the Silence.

"I hope so! Just as long as he or she isn't a slave driver like Anko-sensei I think we'll be fine!" She really hoped their sensei wasn't a slave driver or they would be in a lot of trouble again, one crazy sensei was enough.

"Yeah! Do you think we'll be able to work along with Sasuke." Naruto wanted to know Sakura's answer.

"I don't know! I hope we can work together but well you know how is Sasuke he probably thinks he doesn't need to work with us because he thinks he's superior!" She said in contemplative manner.

"I really do hope we can work with him. Or this will be as Shikamaru says… Troublesome." They laughed for a little at Naruto's pun.

They kept talking for a while before just being there looking into nothing, having nothing to do, Sakura stood there thinking about what the future would reserve for her and Naruto.

She noticed that Naruto's face was close to hers, without thinking she inched closer to him, closer to his face, to his lips, Sakura closed her eyes, reaching to kiss him.

A noise stopped her.

A light snore escaped Naruto's mouth.

"_Oh Kami what Was I doing! I was going to kiss him!" _She panicked mentally. _"What would have happened if I kissed him! He would hate for stealing his first kiss!"_

Her Inner version shook her head. **"You coward you should have given him a smuch on the lips! His first Kiss belongs to us!" **

"_What?!? He would hate for doing that! He doesn't belong to me!" _Sakura told her inner voice frantically. Inner Sakura snorted. **"Hate you? He'd probably kiss back!"**

Before a mental discussion could ensue between the pink haired girl and her Inner, the bell rang signifying the end of lunch.

**-X0X-**

"WHERE IS HE!" Naruto scremed for the umpteenth time. "Everyone's sensei's already came and took their teams hours ago even Iruka-sensei left already!"

"Calm down Naruto-kun! I'm pretty sure sensei will be here shortly!" Sakura tried to calm down her friend/Unknown crush.

Sasuke stood with his hands in front of his face, watching his two teammates interact, they were very different from him and yet Naruto was a little like him, their eyes, their eyes were those of one who knew loneliness, one who was like him, a survivor, he reasoned that maybe he could respect his two teammates, but it wouldn't pass from that, he couldn't afford to lose more people in his life! Itachi had already stolen his family, he didn't want to lose anyone else so he decided that it would be better to don't have any bonds, lest they be destroyed again by Itachi or someone else.

"Damn it, that's it, he's gonna get it!" Naruto said as he placed a dusty eraser on the fringe of the door.

"What are you doing? You're gonna get us in trouble." Sakura warned the boy.

"Our sensei is a jonin do you really think he'll fall for such a lame trick Dobe!" Sasuke said looking at what his blond teammate had prepared for their late sensei.

They spent some more time waiting before footsteps outside in the hall, told someone was coming their turned their glances attentively to the door.

A hand reached for the door.

The door opened.

A head poked through the door.

BONK

The eraser fell on a head with gravity defying silver hair. Everyone inside the room blinked before having different reactions.

Naruto fell on the floor pointing his finger at the man while laughing at him. "He fell for it!"

Sakura waved her hands in front of herself trying to explain tp calm their sensei that would definitely be angry. "Please Sensei forgive Naruto he didn't mean it!" **"That was Illarious did you see that! It was like bonk strait to the head!"**

"_What kind of jonin falls for such a lame trick!" _Sasuke thought looking at the man.

Kakashi grabbed the eraser that had fallen on the top of his head. _"This is Naruto's doing for sure!" _He looked around the room eying his students. "My first impression of you is… I hate you!" his three student fell to the ground with dark clouds over their heads. _"Always Works!" _the silver haired jounin chuckled mentally.

"Meet me at the roof! We'll talk there!" He instructed his three students before disappearing in a swirl of smoke and leaves.

"Man is the guy for real?" Naruto asked his teammates before getting out of the room.

**-X0X-**

The three students, sat themselves in front of their jonin-sensei, only now they had a good vision of the man, he was wearing a Konoha standard ninja attire consisting of navy-blue sweater and ankle length pants with bandages on his pants to tie them up, his feet had the regular navy-blue sandals, his torso was covered by a Green flak vest and his hands had plated navy-blue fingerless gloves. But the most distinguishing thing about the man was a mask that covered his lower half of the face and the hitei-ite slung over his left eye.

"So I ordered you to come here so we can get to meet each other!" He told them. "Talk about your likes, dislikes and your dreams."

The Kunoichi of his team raised her arm. "Yes?"

"Sensei why don't you start to give the example!" The girl said.

"Ok I'll start My name is Hatake Kakashi, there are things I like and things I hate… but I don't feel like telling you. My dreams for the future… I never really thought about that. As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies." His students sweat dropped at their sensei's description of himself.

"_Okay that really didn't help much!" _Sakura thought.

"Since you were the one who you can be the first to start… pinky!" He said pointing at Sakura.

Said girl frowned at her sensei's choice of nickname. "My name is Haruno Sakura, I like flowers reading and memorizing things, I hate bullies and people that make fun of others because of their differences, my dream… I don't know maybe to become a medic-ninja?" **"And to marry Naru-chan and lots of pink haired babies with blue eyes! Shannaro!"**

"_Interesting, this one actually thinks more about her career than boys!" _Kakashi thought while looking at Sakura. "Okay your turn blondie!" The man clearly meant Naruto.

The blond boy adjusted his headband before beginning. "My Name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen, comparing ramen flavors and Sakura-chan, I hate the three minutes you have to wait for ramen to be ready. My dream is to be Hokage so I can protect the village and be recognized as someone Important." He finished with a grin.

"_Same old Naruto with a few improvements! I like this one! Naruto2.0!" _Kakashi chuckled a little at what he said mentally. "Ok you the silent one it's your turn." He motioned Sasuke to go.

Sasuke placed his hands in front of his face in his usual pose. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, there's nothing I like and I hate a lot of things, my dream is not actually a dream it's more of an ambition… I want to kill a certain person and rebuild my clan."

The rest of his teammates looked at him with different expressions.

"_I hope he doesn't me! Cuz if he Is, he's going to get his butt kicked!" _Naruto.

"_I wonder, is the person he wants to kill is the same that killed the Uchihas!" _Sakura

"_Just like I thought he would be! He wants nothing but revenge!" _Kakashi thought. Sighing the man turned his attention back to his students. "Very well now that presentations are done with I have something to tell you, tomorrow we're going to do Survival training."

"Survival training? But Kakashi-sensei we already did that in the academy, why are we doing it again?" Sakura questioned.

"Why aren't we going to do missions sensei?" Naruto too questioned.

"Here's the deal, out of the 27 students that graduated only 9 will actually become Genin." He said in a dark tone his eye twinkling, trying to scare his students.

"WHAT! You mean we went through all that work and we aren't genin yet. What about the graduation!" Naruto shouted, he couldn't believe that he had spent all those years at the academy and now yet again he had another obstacle preventing him from being a ninja.

"The test you do at the Academy is only to see is you're good enough to become Genin, the test you're going to do is the one that's going to decided if you are worthy of the title or not, if not you'll be washed back to the Academy! Only nine of the twenty seven graduates will actually become Genin, It's a test with a 66 per cent drop rate." The man said.

"Bring it on! I'll pass anything you throw at me." Naruto said confidently.

"_I can't let Naruto-kun down! I have to pass this test." _Sakura clenched her fists in determination. **"It's a test of love! Nothing will keep me away from my Naru-chan!"**

"_I have to pass this test it's the only way!" _Sasuke thought, his look a lot sharper.

"Well anyway meet me in training ground seven at 06:00 AM! Oh and by the way don't eat anything or you'll puke!" Kakashi said before leaving in a shunshin.

**-X0X-**

**The next day**

Mitarashi Anko entered the jonin to find surprisingly filled with people, the upcoming genin test always attracted a lot of jonin ad betting polls were very common especially on Kakashi, not taking a team again.

"Yo Anko good to see you! Wanna make a bet!" A jonin called.

"Sure where are the team listings?" She had returned from a mission today, so she wanted to know who their students had as a sensei, teammates and if they were even on the same team.

"There's no one betting on Hatake's team to pass as usual, heard the guy got the Uchiha this year! Looks like the kid will be put down a few pegs, I feel kind of bad for the other two kids though." The guy said.

"Yeah there's no way the kids are going to pass Hatake's test! He's just too strict for them!" Anko shook her head. _"Poor kids!" _

"Yeah and I heard he's got a pretty powerful team this year! A pity really!" The jonin told Anko. "Here check it out his team is Team 7!" He passed Anko the sheet with the teams. She looked at Team 7.

_Team 7_

_Jonin-captain: Hatake Kakashi._

_Genin:_

_Uzumaki Naruto_

_Haruno Sakura_

_Uchiha Sasuke_

"_Ah shit! Not him! Of all the people he gets my otouto and Saku-chan damn it!" _Anko thought shaking her head. _"Oi dumbass why are thinking of your otouto like that! Don't you remember why you never bet against the squirt?" _Anko slapped her forehead. "OI! I want to make a bet!" She grabbed her mission money and slapped it in the betting table. "3000 ryo in which team 7 passes the test!"

People around the room looked at her like she was crazy. Betting that Kakashi's team passed, a lot of the jonin liked the prospect of the easy money, that the bet offered them.

"Heh we'll take on your bet Mitarashi!" several more jonin betted on the prospect of Kakashi's Team 7 failing.

"_Heh you'll just see why you don't bet against my otouto!" _ Anko thought with a grin.

**-X0X-**

"Hello Team! Ready to begin the test?" Kakashi greeted his team when he reached the training ground after making them wait for three hours.

"YOUR LATE!" Naruto and Sakura shouted pointing fingers accusingly at him.

"Sorry I got lost at the road of life!" Kakashi gave his lame excuse.

"Liar!" They again shouted.

"Ok ok, now let's get this show on the road." He reached inside his pouch and pulled two silver bells tied to red ropes. "This is your objective, you have to get the bells…" Once again he reached his pouch and pulled an alarm clock. "Until the alarm rings if you don't get them by the you'll be tied up to the post! You'll have to come at me with the intent to kill! Am I clear?"

"But Kakashi-sensei there's only two bells and we are three!"Sakura pointed the obvious.

"That's because the one that fails the test will be sent back to the Academy!" Kakashi informed them with an amused voice.

"_What? No way I can't fail here, nor will I let Sakura-chan fail." _ Naruto thought.

"_That's not fair! We worked so much to get here, there's something off in here! I just don't know what." _Sakura was suspicious of her sensei.

"_This test! I have to pass it it's the only way I'll be able to face him! If I don't pass this test how can I ever face him, no matter I must succeed here!" _Sasuke's fists clenched his expression hard he stared right into the bells. _"I need to get one of those."_

"Ok, in three, two, one… start!" The three Genin wannabe's disappeared.

Kakashi grinned behind his mask. _"They've hidden themselves nicely, hum there's Sasuke, and Sakura further down on those bushes, now where's Na-" _His train of thought was stopped by a loud shout.

"Kakashi-sensei! I want to fight you fair and square!" Naruto shouted while pointing at the man.

"You're a little strange compared to the others aren't you?" He asked looking at the boy.

"The only strange thing here is your hair style!" The boy shot back.

From his hiding place Sasuke watched the blond's proclamation. _"Is he stupid or something there's no way he can take on a jonin. He's going to get fried."_

"Shinobi tactics #1: Taijutsu the physical arts" Kakashi motioned for the boy to come with his hand.

Naruto rushed at his sensei, full speed trying to catch the man unprepared, he saw him reach inside his pouch, immediately the boy stopped running.

"Hey isn't taijutsu physical combat? Then why are you reaching for a weapon?" Naruto asked warily.

When Naruto finally saw what the man had pulled he sweat dropped. Kakashi had pulled a little orange book.

"Hey hey what are you doing?" Naruto asked looking at the man strangely.

"What do you think I'm doing! I'm reading! I want to know what happens next!" The man simply said.

Naruto raged. He rushed at the man aiming a kick to his head.

Kakashi who was looking at his book, crouched dodging the incoming punch. "You'll have to try harder than that to get me!" He taunted the blond.

"Just stay still for a little!" Naruto said trying to punch the man.

"_C'mon you're better than that Naruto! You have been learning senpai's taijutsu!" _Kakashi thought not taking the eyes of the book, the boy's moves being too predictable.

The boy threw another punch at the man. "Gotcha!" the boy said thinking he had gotten the jonin.

He punched air.

"What?" He asked himself.

"Too slow!" A voice said behind him, looking from the corner of his eyes Naruto saw kakashi behind him aiming with a tiger hand-seal at him.

"_That's a tiger hand-seal! They're commonly used in Katon jutsus! He's going to vaporize the little guy! This is serious you can die here!" _Sasuke though with his eyes widened at the supposed display of ruthlessness of his Sensei.

"**Konohagakure Hiden: taijutsu no OOugi: Sennen Goroshi! (Hidden Leaf Secret finger Technique: Thousand years of Death)." **Kakashi inserted his fingers in Naruto's rectum.

Sakura gasped and stared in disgust.

"_What the heck was that?" _Sasuke thought horrified.

Naruto made a face before…

POOF

"_Wait that was a Kage Bunshin! He was testing me!" _Kakashi thought amusedly.

Sasuke looked at what happened curiously. _"Was that a Kage Bunshin? Isn't that supposed to be a jonin level technique! The guy who couldn't do a simple Bunshin to save his life just made a Kage Bunshin! How strong is Naruto Is he stronger than me?" _Sasuke shook his head. _"I have to focus on the test!"_

"Crap! Glad I wasn't there!" Naruto said trembling a little. "Do you have any more ideas Sakura-chan?"

Beside him Sakura was deep in thought. _"He's strong there's no way were going to get him just like that! We need a distraction so we can set up some traps."_

Naruto had been right next to her since the beginning of the test, the two planned in working together to pass the test and get the bells.

"Ok Naruto here is how it's going to be! Make more clones to distract Kakashi-Sensei while we set up some traps!" She said to the boy.

Nodding the boy made a fresh batch of battle ready clones. The clones jumped over the trees and threw themselves at Kakashi.

The two friends quickly took off. While the clones distracted the silver haired man they set up some traps so they could get their sensei, unprepared.

"Sakura-chan they're gone!" Naruto warned her.

"The traps are all set up! Let's get those bells." She said in a rare confident tone.

"Weights off?"The blond beside her asked with a grin.

"You bet Naruto!" Sakura answered him taking off her forearm and shin weights. Both of them tensed their muscles, feeling the strength they had without the weights.

The two jumped into the open. Running full speed at their sensei. Naruto created a barrage of shadow clones to go in front of them.

Kakashi looked at his two students. "_They're working together! I wonder if they found out the meaning of the test!" _Naruto's clones attacked first, going for Taijutsu. "_He's using senpai's Taijutsu style now, he's getting serious!" _The man started fighting the clones, when he suddenly had to dodge a hail of kunai and senbon. _"They're planning to get me when I'm unprepared. Nice going! Too bad it won't work on me! I wonder if Sasuke is with them? Most probably not!" _The two kids continued storming him with weapons, while the jonin easily dodged every one of them. They seemed to be cornering him. _"I wonder what their plan is?" _A stray Kunai told him what they were planning. _"Traps!" _Kunai came from right and left in his direction.

They hit the man.

Naruto and Sakura stared in horror at the man. They had just killed their sensei.

"_They got him?" _Sasuke watched them as finished to set up his own traps. "_No!" _he said mentally as he watched a log take the place of the man.

"Uh-oh Naruto we've to get out of here!" Sakura shouted at her blond teammate.

They both quickly returned to the forest not wanting to be found by the man.

"Where is he now?" Naruto asked more to himself than to Sakura.

"Behind you!" A voice said behind the two genin wannabe's. They screamed.

"Run! Run! Run!"They said in unison trying to keep their distance from the man.

Kakashi followed them in hiding, when they stopped he cast a little genjutsu on them.

Naruto and Sakura herd some noise coming from the leaves, raising a kunai in front of them they prepared themselves for whatever was to come.

"Naruto! Sakura! Help me! He got me!" A voice said from the bushes.

"Who's there?" they inquired.

"Help me!" A figure got out of the bushes, Sasuke with several kunai lodged on his skin, blood coming out of his wounds. "Help me! Kakashi… he got me!"

Naruto stared at the boy in horror. "S-s-asuke!"

"_There's something strange here! Wait I know!" _ Sakura made a ram hand-seal. "Kai." Sasuke disappeared.

"Shinobi tactics #2 Gensjutsu, Illusions! You did well on this part kids! I'll come for you two later." Kakashi said before turning back.

**-X0X-**

Sasuke stood in his place for a while his two teammates and Kakashi went into the forest. _"Where's Kakashi?"_

Said man was now going back to the open field, on his shoulders he had a knocked out Naruto and Sakura. The man proceeded to tie them to a tree.

"_Now's my chance!" _Sasuke thought while he readied his weapons.

Down on the open field Kakashi smirked. _"Gotcha!" _He said mentally as Sasuke's weapons flew towards him. The man got out of the way on the last moment.

"_Damn My weapons missed I wasn't good enough! I'll have to change place!" _The young Uchiha quickly moved out, not wanting to be caught by Kakashi.

"Going anywhere Sasuke?" Kakashi asked appearing in front of him.

"_What! It seems I'll have to go with Taijutsu!" _Sasuke thought aiming a punch at the man. Kakashi just grabbed his hand and threw the boy to the field.

When he got back the boy was already trying to attack him again. Kakashi defended the various strikes directed without breaking a sweat. Grabbing Sasuke's foot he prepared to throw him away, but the boy twisted himself, trying to hit him in a pretty awkward position. Kakashi after this was able to throw him away from him.

"Your different from the others?" Kakashi told Sasuke.

"I'm stronger than those two! After all I was the rookie of the year!" Sasuke said with a smirk.

"That's not what I meant! I meant that you're cockier than them and that's going to be your downfall!" The man said trying to make the boy angry. He was successful.

The Uchiha cut a string that was near him releasing a barrage of kunai that flew strait to Kakashi.

The man just jumped to the side avoiding the weapons, when he looked back to Sasuke he saw he wasn't there. Feeling a presence to his right side he glanced in that direction.

"_Snake, ram, monkey, horse, tiger!" _Sasuke made hand-seals. **"Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball technique). **Filling his lungs the boy released a ball of fire in Kakashi's direction.

When the fire died down Sasuke saw that the man wasn't there.

"_Where is he?" _He asked himself, looking around in search of the man.

A hand suddenly grabbed him in the ankle and pulled his body till he was neck deep on the ground and once again Kakashi appeared. **"Doton: Shinju Zanshu 8Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique), **Shinobi tactics #3 Ninjutsu!"

"You know they say that the nail that sticks out has to be hammered down!" He said poking Sasuke's head.

**-X0X-**

"Sakura-chan! What are we going to do now?" Naruto asked the girl. Kakashi had left them for a while so they had to plan their next move.

"We'll go with our ninjutsu, we'll attack Kakashi-sensei with a wind powered Katon jutsu! Before that you'll spread various clones around so they can catch the bells for us when Sensei tries to dodge or change places." She explained him their plan.

They prepared to move out. Naruto made a lot of clones that stayed on the trees or would go with them.

"Ok three two one! Go!" Sakura said.

While the two were in the air they began making hand-seals.

"**Katon:Goukakyu no jutsu" **

"**Fuuton: Daitoppa."**

The two jutsus mingled creating a even bigger fireball that came down on Kakashi, the man only had time to barely dodge the jutsu as he was caught by surprise that two genins would do something as combing jutsus.

"Now get the bells!!" Naruto shouted to his clones. The doppelgangers launched themselves at Kakashi catching the man from behind and holding his limbs.

"Now we've got you Kakashi sensei!" the clones shouted.

"Think again!" The man said smiling.

Poof a Naruto look alike took his place.

"Hey where did he go?"

"It's you isn't it!"

"No it's you!"

"It's not me it's him!"

Naruto's clones began fighting with each other dispelling themselves.

"Naruto! Just dispel your clones will you!" Sakura said sweat dropping at her friends clones behavior.

"Hai, hai!" The clones dispelled in a great cloud of chakra smoke.

And then the bell rang.

**-X0X-**

In the end of the test, Sasuke was tied to the post, All the three genin looked pretty down, having failed the test.

"_I failed! No!" _Sasuke thought clenching his fists angry with himself.

Sakura looked at her toes sadly. _"We failed! Even after all we've done we failed! It's like someone doesn't wants us to become ninjas!"_

"_No I was so close of being a ninja! How could I fail again? Why?" _Naruto was the one who was worse of the three, having come so close to being a ninja and then failing.

Kakashi looked at the team pretty disappointed. "It seems to me that you three didn't understand the true meaning of the test."

"The true meaning of the test? What was it Kakashi-sensei? Wasn't it to catch the bells?" Sakura asked in a sad low voice.

"No that was what I wanted you guys to think it was! You had to look underneath the underneath" Kakashi said lifting one finger in a way that it seemed he was lecturing them. !The true objective of this test was to work as a team to get the bells! I only said that so you would n't work together, Needless to say You failed miserably, sasuke you didn't even seek your teammates, Naruto, Sakura Why didn't you help Sasuke?"

"_Damn it so it was teamwork! Way to go Sakura, you're so smart and you couldn't figure this test out!" _Sakura berated herself, thinking it was her fault. **"Stop it will ya? It's not your fault! You did what you could!"**

"I should ban your entry to the ninja program ever again! But no I'll give you guys another chance! But first recover your energy." He passed Naruto and Sakura two bentos. "Don't give any to Sasuke!" With that he disappeared.

The two opened their bentos, right on cue Sasuke's stomach growled. The Uchiha flushed in embarrassment.

Looking from at meal and at Sasuke, Naruto extended it to his teammate.

"Dobe what are you doing?" He asked.

"You're hungry you won't be of much use if you don't recover your energies!"Naruto replied his arm still extended.

"I can handle myself without help!" Sasuke's pride wouldn't let him accept the meal.

"Just shut up and eat before Kakashi-sensei returns" Sakura told him harshly.

"And how am I supposed to do eat with my arms tied up! Huh tell me?" He said to her.

Sakura glowered, she grabbed her shop sticks and took some food from Naruto's bento. Before she could put it into Sasuke's mouth her sensei appeared again.

"YOU!" dark clouds covered the sun. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU! DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO DON'T FEED SASUKE! EXPLAIN YOURSELVES!"

Naruto sighed. "You told us that the objective of the test was teamwork right? Well Sasuke would be pretty weak if he didn't eat anything and wouldn't be able to help us get the bells." Naruto reasoned.

Sakura intervened too. "We're a team right, so we must care for our teammates!"

"Oh really? What do you think about this Sasuke?" Kakashi asked the tied boy.

Sasuke clenched his fists in anger, he turned his head to the side. "Their right!" He mumbled.

"What did you say?"

"..Their right!"

"Sorry but you'll have to speak louder!"

"I SAID THEY'RE RIGHT!"

"Ah thought so!" Kakashi narrowed his eye looking at them. "YOU…" the clouds in the sky disappeared. "…pass!"

**-X0X-**

**A/N: Done! Biggest chapter till now. Read and review. Next chapter will be the aftermath of the test and the first missions. See ya next chappy.**


	9. After the Test

**A/N: Ok there were a lot of views on last chapter but so little reviews, I made me uneasy till I saw the number of views on it which are more than normal 1.330 hits I feel loved. Now just a little something REVIEW, tell me what you think, what you like what you don't like.**

**Chapter 9- After the test**

" You…" The clouds on the sky disappeared. "…Pass."

Kakashi's students blinked for a little before exploding.

"WHAT!" They shouted looking at their sensei like he had grown a second head.

"But you said we failed." Sakura really didn't understand the man.

Kakashi gave the three one of his famous eye-smiles. He pointed to the stone near them, which Sakura recognized as the memorial stone were her father's name had been inscribed when he died on a mission. "In this stone there are the names of heroes."

With eyes wide, Naruto looked at the stone, he wanted his name to be on that stone.

"They are a special kind of heroes, all of them have given their lives for the sake of the village, our last tribute to them is adding their names here so we may never forget their sacrifice. My teammates and sensei have their names here they like the rest of those who gave their lives for their village." The man traced a name on the stone. "Those who break the rules are scum. But those who abandon their friends are even worse than scum. Keep those words in your heart, a teammate's life is more important than any mission you can take."

"_Wow." _Naruto thought in wonder looking at the man in awe.

"Now let's get going! I have to report to the Hokage that this Team is now on the active, also I got to tell people on the jonin lounge that I have a team now, after we'll have lunch and then we'll take our Team photo does it sound good for you?" He asked wanting to know his students opinion.

His students just shrugged, following the man.

**-X0X-**

"Naruto! Sakura! Good to see you guys, did you pass the test too?" KIba asked them when they entered the room, along with Kiba's team, team 10 was also there.

Asuma let the cigar he had in his mouth fall to the ground. "You're kidding right? The guy who never passed a team once has one now are they so good, that they can even pass his test?" The smoker wondered.

"Not really but they understood the value of teamwork." Kakashi said not taking his eyes from his book.

"_Naruto-kun passed his test, I'm happy for him." _Hinata thought while looking shyly at Naruto, her fingers tips touching each other and a blush adorning her cheeks.

"Tch you guys passed? Troublesome." Shikamaru said when he looked at them.

"Ah very well! Thanks for coming Kakashi." The Hokage said to the silver haired man before turning to the Genin. "Teams 7, 8 and 10, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the Ninja ranks of Konoha as Genin!" He took several papers from his desk and passed them to the genin. "These are your identifications, you'll be able to use them to enter the Shinobi district and buy real weapons instead of training ones and clothes that offer you better protection, but since most of you are major clan children you won't need to buy them, also you need to have these with you when leaving the village in a mission while getting out and while entering. No go along to your families and give them the news, they'll be most certainly happy to hear them! Now go and have the rest of a good day, we'll meet tomorrow for your first missions."

"So Kakashi you have a team now, I wonder in what you're going to train them?" Asuma asked the man.

"_I have to! Senpai told me I had to train them or she would kick my butt when she came back!" _Kakashi thought remembering the conversation he had with his Senpai a week ago.

_Flashback_

_Once again Koumyou had appeared in Kakashi's apartment. This time she came with the objective of talking to the man regarding Naruto._

"_Hello Kakashi-kun! Long time no see." She said in her melodic voice that was muffled by her mask._

"_Senpai, it's good to see you again. I trust your hunt is coming to an end?" He asked hopefully. Naruto needed her as much as she needed him._

"_It's going alright! Just two or three more and I'm ready to come back to Konoha again,I also have a few things I want to grab at the my old Clan compound in Uzu no Kuni!" She told him leaning in Kakashi's apartment wall._

"_I see it will be good to have you back again among us!" Kakashi said smiling at her._

"_Your practically the only one who knows me in the Village besides the Sandaime and my remaining old ANBU teammates, and they don't know that I'm alive either." She said in low voice that hinted a little sadness. "The only important thing for me Is Naruto! Nothing else matters, his safety is my priority."_

"_He'll be graduating soon you know that senpai, he's going to be told about the Kyuubi too." Kakashi told her. _

"_I wish I could be here for the Graduation exam but I can't and to hold him when they tell him that but I still have things to do. My safety and Naruto's is not yet assured there are still those who would like to exact their revenge on me or on those that are connected with me, you can hold your own but Naruto can't go against those kind of people yet. He's too young." She said thinking about the boy._

"_Yes I see! You'll probably want to train him against Akatsuki too right?"Kakashi asked without knowing what was to come next._

"_I will train Naruto in his clan techniques and fighting styles of course! But so will you train him and his teammates whoever they are! They'll be Naruto's best allies for the storm that is coming the boy's way, So you better train him too! It's your duty as a sensei!" Koumyou exclaimed. "If you don't do that in the time I come back You'll be sure that I will kick your ass Kakashi-kun!"_

"_Hai Senpai." Kakashi said in a fear of his Senpai's temper._

_Flashback end_

"I have a few ideas." That was all Kakashi said to Asuma.

Their next stop was of course the jonin lounge in which the genin were told to wait outside, after a few moments their heard a shout of joy and several others of shock that came from the people inside.

The doors opened suddenly and none other than Mitarashi Anko came from the inside and embraced her otouto fiercely.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She said excitedly while hugging him.

"Nee-chan what's going on?" He asked not knowing why she was on that state.

Anko stopped for a little. "Well you see every year there is this betting poll we organize here, we make several bet's and one of the major ones is if the pervert there-!" She pointed to their newly arrived sensei.

"Hey!" Kakashi protested.

"Ah you know you're a pervert Hatake! Anyway when I reached here I asked to see the teams I saw you where on this guy's team, who never once passed one. Well let's just say that I betted that you passed and you did." She hugged him again.

"How much was it against you? You said Kakashi-sensei never once passed a Team so you must have had some competition right?" He once again asked.

"Yeah why?" Anko didn't know why her otouto wanted to know that.

"How much was the difference?" He questioned her

"20 to 1." she told him.

Naruto Gasped. "20 to 1! How much did you bet?"

Anko looked at the boy still not getting where he was going. "3000 ryo."

The boy looked at her with his eyes wide, he extended his hand to her and pointed at it. "I want half of that." He declared.

His teammates were still looking amazed with the amount of money the woman had won from betting on their Team.

Sakura made the exact calculations. "That's about… 60000 ryo! THAT MUCH?" she shouted the last part.

Anko continued arguing with her otouto. "You want half? Why would I give that?" She yelled at the boy.

"Why? I'll tell you why no one uses me as betting material without me getting something! Now pay up!" He shouted back.

"Listen Brat!" She used her old nick name for him. "I'm not going to give you anything from my betting money and that's final! I might buy a few things for you want but it doesn't gets more than that! Why do you need the money anyway!"

"Listen you betted on me we all know that! So just give me the damn money! I need it for buy new clothes and I my apartment building is going to be demoli-" The boy stopped. _"Crap I was going to take care of this with the old man only!"_

"Your apartment building is going to be demolished? Why didn't you tell so? Of course I'll give money to help buy one in that case!" Anko said ruffling his hair a bit. "You should have told me."

Naruto sighed. "I didn't want to worry anyone with my problems. I was going to take of everything with the old man without making a big deal out of it."

Kakashi chose this moment to intervene. "How about this? After lunch and taking the team photo the three of us will go to the Hokage to talk to him Ok?"

Naruto nodded. "Ok Kakashi-sensei!"

"Now let's go get lunch! By the way Anko your paying since you have your pockets full."

"WHAT!"

**-X0X-**

After leaving lunching and taking a team photo, Kakashi instructed Sasuke and Sakura to be at the location he told them to at 07:00 AM, as a side note he told Sakura and Naruto to stop wearing weights as he was going to give the three of them something more pratical that would let them wear more open clothing if that was the case.

Naruto and Sakura didn't know what the man meant but they agreed to take off the weights much to Anko's changrin.

Continuing, the jonins and the Genin were now in the office of the Hokage conversing with the man.

"So is this true what your senseis are telling me Naruto-kun?" The old man asked the boy who seemed to be looking down shamefully to the ground.

"Yeah it is Jiji." The boy while looking down.

"I didn't get any notice from the building owners that they are demolishing it but I'll get you a new one of course!" The man informed the boy smiling at him.

"Excuse me Hokage-sama but maybe we could get him an apartment on the Shinobi district. They're quite good, so I think Naruto wouldn't mind one there." Kakashi intervened.

" Yes that's a good idea Kakashi." Sarutobi called his secretary who came moments later with several apartment rental forms. "So let's see! Ah this one is perfect, one main room and a guest one so you can have one of your friends over. What do you think Naruto?"

"It's great Jiji! Thanks a lot." The boy said happily giving a very wide smile at the old man.

Sarutobi passed the three a sheet with Naruto's new address, Kakashi smiled when he saw the address.

"Looks like I'll have a new neighbor! Seems like there will be a welcome party tonight." Kakashi said patting Naruto's back.

"Welcome party?" Naruto asked. "What's that?"

Anko was the one who explained. "Well it's a party that we'll throw as a welcome to a new roommate as greetings and all, really it's just an excuse to invite everyone over to your home. Now let's go we need to go get your things at your apartment and I want to give you a little something for passing the test." Anko said with a grin, not a mischievous as she normally had, just that a grin that passed confidence to others and this kind of grin was rare to see in Anko's face since she was never one of giving emotional support to others, she was the one that made them have emotional support.

The group of three left leaving a smiling Hokage behind. "Your family is growing Naruto-kun."

**-X0X-**

Packing Naruto's stuff was pretty quick since he had very little things. Naruto's clothes and books were on a backpack that he had on his slung over his back, his plants were on a box carried by Anko, his weapons were all taken by Kakashi who had took them immediately so Anko wouldn't see them while going through the boy's stuff. He didn't want the woman to make a scene, when she saw that her otouto had a nice little stash of ANBU grade weaponry, that he himself Kakashi had gotten to the boy under the disguise of Inu.

"Ok destination Naruto's new apartment." Kakashi said before jumping out of the window. They jumped through the rooftops for a while before Kakashi warned them to stop.

"The Shinobi district is protected by tracking seal wards that detect any ninja's chakra, the only way to get into the district without causing trouble is through the guards posts at the entrances, being able to deactivate the wards or deceiving the most of those are quite hard."Kakashi explained to Naruto. "You'll have to give them your identification as a Shinobi of Konoha for them to let you enter."

The boy nodded as they approached the guards at the entrance, showing them his identification, they nodded at the boy and let him enter on the district.

Naruto was amazed by at the district it had a ninja could need from restaurants to ninja related shops. He noticed that a few children playing on the road.

"Kakashi-sensei I thought you said only ninja could enter this district! So why are there little kids in here?" Naruto asked his sensei not understanding why there were children that weren't even academy students on the district.

"The family's of the ninja's that live here are allowed in here since they have a relation either of husband and wife or children. We wouldn't leave a family separated from each other now would we?" The silver haired jonin explained his blond student. "Now let's keep going the apartment building is on the middle of the district so we've got some ways to walk still."

The apartment building was big with lots of space for Shinobi to live in cozy apartments, there were three floors. Kakashi was the only one who lived in that floor, now with the company of Naruto.

They gave the doorman Naruto's apartment papers, the man looking at them nodded and gave the boy the key, not before saying. "Welcome to this building Uzumaki-san we hope your apartment is of your liking."

Naruto was flabbergasted by the way the man treated him, normally he was treated with animosity by the villagers, here in this new place this man treated him with the respect he always craved without having to prove himself. It was strange for Naruto.

"It's different here from the other place isn't it?" Anko asked noticing the boy and how he looked. "That's because people know what happened between you and Mizuki! Let's just say that you caused quite a pretty good impression in the Ninja community with how you caught the guy, that takes a lot of wit to be able to see through that, most kids would have simply done what their sensei had told them." Anko told the boy once again ruffling his hair.

The floor had only four apartments and Naruto's was right in front of his sensei's, entering Naruto couldn't help but to stare at how spacious it was, the apartment was big. It it had all the necessary furniture, a couch, two tables and several chairs and comfy beds on the rooms, there was also a television on the common room.

Naruto entered his main bedroom and stared at the size of it was at least as twice as big as his last bedroom and the bed wasn't ratty like his old one. Outside the room there was a balcony were he could put his plants

"Wow this is so… Wow!" the boy exclaimed in amazement.

"Pretty neat isn't it? Check this out." Kakashi pointed to a board, green in color that was against the bedroom walls. "You can put your weapons here, all main rooms have this, since their occupants are shinobi, you can always have a new set of weapon organized if you need them! Now let's unpack the stuff you have with you and get preparing the party. Who do you want to invite?" He asked the boy.

"Well I'm going to invite Sakura-chan and her mother, Kiba, his father, mother and sister, Iruka-sensei, Jiji, Konohamaru, and…" He paused for a while.

"And?" Anko asked.

"Sasuke." Naruto said simply.

"The Uchiha? You're invinting him." Anko looked at him. "Why?"

"Me and Sasuke are very alike, we both grew up without parents or someone to hold us, even if he had a family for a while, he's the only one my age that understands how it is to be alone to not have someone who loves you to hold you when you feel lonely or like crying. He turned out differently than me, but I could have ended that way when he did, and he could have turned out like me. No one deserves to live like he does so I'll take every opportunity I can to remove the stick he has up his ass little by little." Naruto said thinking of his male teammate.

"I don't know think he'll come if you send him an invitation but if it's needed I'll drag him here myself!" Kakashi told Naruto giving the boy a thumb up.

"What about the food? I vote we eat Dango!" Anko said with her grin and her mind being filled with thoughts about Dango.

"No!" the other shouted.

"I don't like sweet things!" Kakashi replied to the purple haired kunoichi. "How about salt-broiled saury!" Kakashi said licking his lips, not that they could see.

"Nah I'll pass!" Naruto said moving his hand like he was trying to something away from him.

"Me too!" Anko too didn't like Kakashi's choice of food. "Too normal!"

Kakashi fake cried at what the other two said.

"I know what we'll eat!" Naruto said pumping his fist in the air.

Kakashi and Anko shook their heads. "No way we're going to eat Ramen!"

The blond boy let his head fall. "What are going to eat?"

"We'll see that after we unpack your stuff." Anko went for one the boxes.

"No don't open that one" Kakashi told her.

Too late.

"Holy fucking shit!" Anko swore. "Kid were the hell did you get stuff like this here?" She said pointing at a kunai.

"Hum that was a present from my birthday. Nothing big just a bunch of weapon sets." The boy said like it was nothing big.

"Just a bunch of weapon sets! JUST A BUNCH OF WEAPON SETS!" She exclaimed loudly. "Otouto this is ANBU grade weaponry, this stuff isn't available in shops you know!"

"Oh really, I never really got to use them since I got them, I just became a genin a little time ago!" Naruto shrugged his shoulders. So Inu-san had got him a good set of weapon, ok maybe good wasn't sayuing, but anyway so what they were just weapons.

"Have you ever seen an ANBU exploding tag go off it's about two times more powerful than the normal ones you and everyone else uses." She didn't like the idea of her otouto having this kind of weapons with him. Then she took out the two weapon pouches that were filled with the same kind of equipment. She rolled her eyes. _"If I catch the guy who gave this to him! I'm gonna destroy him or her, How can this kid have better weapons than me. I'm so jealous"_

Listening to them Kakashi kept quiet through the entire conversation. _"Ah man should have put that box in other place, now I'm gonna be in trouble with the Hokage if she tells him anything."_

"Well anyway the stuff is all unpacked so let's go out and get that little something I wanted to give you." Anko grabbed the boy and dragged him with her. "Hey Hatake take care of the invitations will you?"

Kakshi groaned. _"Why does it have to end up for me?" _

**-X0X-**

It seemed that Anko had dragged the boy to a ninja specialized clothing store, here they sell various types of clothing, that were very resistant and ideal for their line of job. The attendant greeted them.

"Hello my name is Mizuri, how may I help you?" The attendant had long light brown hair and a pretty face.

"We're here to get clothes for this little runt here." Anko told the woman pointing at the boy.

"I see are there any preferences in colors and styles of clothes and anything at all?" The attendant asked them.

"ORA-" Anko's hand covered the boy's mouth.

"You're not going to wear orange and that's final." She whispered to him in a very menacing tone. "Please just bring something simple pants and a jacket. Dark colors preferably!"

The attendant nodded and was off while Anko started searching the various clothing items for something more for Naruto.

The woman was soon back, with jackets in various colours, from blue to dark green to red. Naruto didn't like any of them. "They aren't orange." he said.

"Listen kid you can't wear orange it's too bright and it makes you look like an idiot, besides you're a ninja wear something that can help you with stealth, will you!" Anko explained the boy.

"Please try this one Uzumaki-san." The attendant passed him a pitch black jacket that had a red ANBU like symbol on the back.

Naruto put on the jacket and moved his arms a bit. The cloth was light yet very durable and gave great maneuverability, not hindering the arms, it had long sleeves that covered the arm till the wrist. Naruto noticed that there were two metal plates on each sleeve one on the middle of the forearm and other on the middle of the upper arm. The low collar had a red Konoha leaf sewn on the right side.

"It's a new kind of jacket we have here,it's not very popular because of its price!" The attendant told them.

"What's the price?" Anko asked.

"600 ryo." The woman informed.

"600 ryo! Whoa that quite a price for jacket, I don't think that flak vests are that expensive. Why is it so?" Anko asked while asked while eying the jacket.

"The cloth used on it is a new thing that was invented in Kenpu no Kuni (Land of Silk), it's very resistant and quite stretchable if I might say but since it's still a new thing it's quite expensive since mass production isn't used yet, also there's the metal plates that make it even more expensive since they are foged especially for the jacket. So you can see why it is so expensive." The costumers nodded their heads.

Naruto moved his shoulders a bit. "I like this one." He said looking at the jacket.

"Ok get another jacket of those and then some pants." Anko told the attendant.

The woman left yet again to return some minutes later with various types of pants and another black jacket.

"Do you have any preference in pants? Ankle-length? Baggy?" again the woman asked.

"Ankle length would be better for him." Anko informed the woman.

She passed Naruto a pair of rust red pants with black flames at the bottom, the boy went to the dressing room to try out the pants, he noticed that they were quite comfortable, they had some padding on the knees, on the bottom there an elastics used to keep them in place so they wouldn't flail around.

"Oi these are good!" He shouted from the dressing room.

Anko hearing that ordered three more pairs of pants like those, some muscle shirts and mesh shirts for the boy. She looked around the shop looking for a few more things, a pair of plated black fingerless gloves, black shinobi sandals and two black belts with metal plates and she took some black cloth dye for Naruto's hitei-ite.

Gathering all the things on the counter the attendant started making counts. "It's 1565 ryo please."

Anko gave the money to the woman and together with Naruto she left the shop.

**( Just a quick note on the ryo currency I'm basing myself here his like the in euros or dollars since I don't know the yen one. So that jacket isn't something you just buy like that. At least if you're middle class or lower.)**

**-X0X-**

At 07:00 PM everyone started showing for the dinner, the first was Sakura and her mother, Sakura had come dressed in a simple white dress with some pink petals that reached her knees, for Naruto that was one of the prettiest things he had ever seen, If his blushing was any sign, this blush was caught by both Sakura's mother and Anko, who smiled in a knowing way.

Next to arrive was Iruka who congratulated Naruto various times for his success in becoming a genin and told him how proud he was to have the boy as his student, they also talked about various topics before Anko latched Iruka and dragged him with her.

The Hokage and Konohamaru were next to arrive, they of course chatted for awhile, Konohamaru sporting Naruto's old green goggles with pride.

When the Inuzukas arrived the mood on the room became a little tense, because of Kiba's father and Sakura's mother, the two looked so alike, that they could be brothers. Everyone but the Hokage would not be ready for the shock they would receive.

Inuzuka Shiro was a tall man, a veteran of the Third war, his numerous scars proved it, mainly the one that had stolen his left eye. He had snow white hair tied in a ponytail and a single green eye like Sakura and her mother had, the fang like marks on his face we green instead of red. He was wearing a white fur trimmed black jacket along with a pair of brown ankle length pants, he carried himself with a pose that showed his greatness. The man was known as the Shiroi Ookami (White wolf) of Konoha. It could be noticed that the man limped a little when he walked.

"Shiro." Yuki said bitterly."What are you doing here!"

"I was invited just like you, sister." Almost everyone's eyes widened at that, even Hana's and Kiba's.

"Sister?" Hana asked her father. "Is it true father? Why didn't you tell us about her?"

"Your aunt, she was incapable of bonding with the dogs, so in the time of your mother's mother she was seen as useless to the clan by your grandmother, so when she came of age to be able to work she was banished from the clan." Shiro explained from his children.

"But why didn't you tell us anything?" Kiba asked his father. "This means Sakura is my cousin right?"

"Yeah runt it means pinky there is your cousin but don't get to cozy, her mother doesn't want anything to do with us anymore." Tsume,Hana and Kiba's mother explained.

"Why not? Isn't she Tou-san's sister?" Kiba insisted.

"She slammed her door on my face every time I tried to talk to her, even when her daughter was born she didn't let me come near her." Shiro explained his children. "Why do you keep with this nonsense Yuki, why do you hate me so much?"

"WHY you ask me why you pompous bastard, what did you do when that bitch banished me from the clan what did you do? Huh? You did nothing you just let her send me away your own twin sister you bastard!" Yuki eyes had tears on them. "What do you want now? Do you want to steal my daughter too, do you want to take away everything I have do you!" The woman's voice was choked by her sobs.

"Yuki you know as well as me that your brother couldn't do anything my Kaa-sama was one real bitch who believed in purity of blood and all that crap, but your brother never once stopped loving you, heck I was the one who had to take him out of his mental funk after you rejected him. So please don't say that he doesn't love you! As far as I know you two made a pact of blood long before your banishment." Tsume told the white haired Haruno.

Yuki just stood there shaking with sobs, years of wrongful hatred now weighing on her conscience. _"How could I be like that with my own brother." _She looked down "I- I-'m s-s-sorry!"

Shiro advanced and embraced his sister. "I should be the one to be sorry I should have fought harder, Yuki, it was my duty to help my sister. I'm nothing but scum." The man said to his sister, regret oozing out from his voice.

Yuki shook her head on his shoulder. "No don't be it was my fault."

Everyone smiled at the sight of the two reconciled siblings.

"Hey this is a party isn't it so let's not kill the spirit will we!" Tsume said loudly making everyone laugh a little.

The last person to arrive was Kakashi who entered with a less than pleased Sasuke on his shoulders.

"Sorry I'm late I had to drag Sasuke here from his home." The man said while pointing at the boy in his shoulders.

The same thought ran in everyone's heads. "_Did he just give a truthful excuse!"_

Dinner had went pretty well, everyone had enjoyed the food, after that they had separated into groups, Tsume, Shiro and Yuki, stood on one place catching up for the lost time. Hana, Sakura and Anko were on another place talking about girl stuff. Iruka and Kakashi were talking about various shinobi related matters. The last group was composed by the Hokage, Naruto Sasuke, Kiba and Konohamaru, the four listened more or less to various stories the Hokage told them about the times of the Second and Third wars, battles he had fought and the things he had seen. Sasuke had tried to keep alone in a corner but Naruto had dragged him to where he and the others were.

The party lasted till 11:00 PM since people had things to the next day. They all said goodbye to Naruto or in Sasuke's case "Hn".

When he went to bed Naruto had a big smile on his face.

**-X0X-**

**A/N: Tadah done Hope you guys liked this chapter, next chapter is the beginning of the wave arc. Also the mask is coming off next chapter, but you already know who it is don't you. BTW the part of Sakura and Kiba being cousins doesn't mean I'll give her a dog.**

**See you all on next chapter.**


	10. The mask comes off: To Wave

**A/N: I received some reviews telling me that I'm using too much exclamation points, and that I have a few errors and that I should proofread my story, so here it his. I NEED A BETA. Since I'm not perfect I can't keep track of every error I make, some of them are bound to escape, Beta's are preferably those who speak good English. If you know a good beta please tell me. I hope this chapter is better written.**

**Chapter 10 - The mask comes off: To Wave **

"_Baka here, I have confirmation of the target, how about the rest of you?" _Naruto's voice asked through the communicators.

"_Bubblegum here, I too have visual on the target, prepared to move on." _Sakura confirmed from the place she was.

"_Drama Queen confirming visual on the target, should we act… Papa Scarecrow?" _ Sasuke asked Kakashi for confirmation to move on.

"_This is Papa Scarecrow, do you confirm the identity of the target? Target has a red ribbon on its right ear. Do you confirm its identity?"_ Kakashi asked his students while reading his book.

"_Red ribbon on the right ear? Yeah I see it it's there! Can we catch the damn thing now!" _Naruto's annoyed voice rang.

"_If you confirm the target's identity then you have clearance to move on to catch it." _Kakashi told them.

"_Finally!" _Naruto shouted as he took off after the cat.

From the bushes, three blurs shot out, after a small brown cat, the three ninja jumped on the cat trying to catch it.

The unsuspecting animal didn't stand a chance as Naruto wrapped his arms around it. But of course that didn't mean that it wouldn't retaliate, the cat mercilessly scratched the boy's face.

"_AHH! Get it off me!" _The boy screamed in pain.

"_Drama Queen here, we have captured the target." _Sasuke informed.

"_Ok! Good job team! Let's go to the tower to get our payment." _Kakashi told his team after they had all the work catching the fur ball.

"_I WANT ANOTHER MISSION!" _Naruto screamed so loudly that his sensei fell to the ground in pain.

**-X0X-**

**Ruins of Uzugakure no Sato**

The ruins of Uzugakure no Sato, located in the center of Uzu no kuni, were once a part of a small but proud village of strong ninjas, but having allied themselves with Hi no kuni in the third great ninja war had brought the destruction of the village. In that night a massive force of Iwa-nin attacked and completely subjugated the Village's forces. The Konoha reinforcements that had been stationed there had been slaughtered along with the rest of the Village, all but one survivor.

Along the old ruins a cloaked figure moved, dressed in a tattered black ANBU cloak, this figure slowly walked contemplating the ruins, images of the village's last moments flashing through its mind, the white porcelain mask it normally wore was in its hand.

The figure's beautiful face had a diagonal scar than traveled from the left to the right, till the jaw bone, its dark blue eyes scanned the ruins, identifying them, remembering what they once had been, shops, houses, playgrounds, all destroyed because of men's greed and hatred.

The village had a big river where its famous whirlpools still rotated timelessly, like nothing had happened, the river water was now dark, when it used to be so pure looking. This place had been said to be haunted by the ghosts of the old villagers that killed travelers looking for revenge. Silly rumors, used to scare away people and treasure hunters from the once proud place.

On the center of the village stood a large house now burned, a small spiral symbol could be seen on the wreckage.

This was the old ancestral home of the leaders of Uzugakure, the Uzumaki clan. Now nothing more than a shadow and a memory of a war that ended years ago.

In front of the residence was the last proud child of the Uzumaki clan of Uzugakure.

Uzumaki Kushina had returned home one last time.

She pulled down the hood of her cloak letting her vibrant red long hair cascade down like liquid fire. Her gaze lingered on the house, the once happy memories of the place invading her mind.

Tears fell down her face as she remembered the night her family had perished protecting the village, her parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and also dear friends from other clans, all dead, butchered by the Iwa Shinobi in one night. She was the only one alive now, the one that carried their memories, the proof of their existence, the one that cried for them.

Fate was truly a difficult fellow to read, one minute you were happily dining with your loved ones talking, smiling with them, without any care in the world, knowing that you were safe where you were and the next moment you watched your clansmen give their lives so that you could cowardly escape the village, never forget us, avenge us, live for us, they had told her before throwing their lives against the invading Iwa-nins.

That night was a nightmare that populated only Uzumaki Kushina's dreams, hers and only hers alone.

Kushina, walked alongside the burned remains of the house letting all the pent up sorrow fall down her face, one last time, after this she would have a new life waiting for her, a life that had been left to fend for itself for twelve miserable years, the life of one Uzumaki Naruto, her son, her world, the only reason she still lived.

"I used to listen to Tou-san's lectures here." Kushina said with a small sad smile on her face, the memory of a red haired man flooding her thoughts. "He was so mad when I paint bombed that entire street, how would he feel if I told him that my own son is even worse than me. He would probably try tear out his hair is he knew that he painted the whole Hokage Mountain of Konoha. He would be happy that I got a man of good like Minato-kun."

She missed her family everyday of her life, both living and dead. The spirit of the fiery Uzumaki would live on as long as one of them still lived and there were two of them currently. The next generation would be very a very interesting one indeed.

A book was taken out of her empty weapon pouch, the last fight she had, required her every piece of equipment. Flipping the pages of the book, Kushina gazed at the photos of various Iwa ninja, everyone of them had a cross on its face, all of them potential threats to her and her son, all of them dead but one. The last one was a man with brown hair and slightly tanned skin tone. Yama Daimaru, A-class missing-nin from Iwa, jonin, 38 years old, proficient in ninjutsu, 300000 ryo reward on his head for trying to kill the Tsuchikage after the end of the war, since then this man had been on the loose, the killer of her father, she had left this one for the end as a personal revenge, Kushina would look into the man's eyes before leaving her old life beyond and begin her new one.

She continued walking around the village, now in direction of her clan's old secret compound. The redhead hoped that the secret compound's Genjutsu wards were still active or the place could have been ransacked a long time ago, the place was only used to store various items from weapons to food to scrolls containing techniques invented by them since the founding of the village, their Forbidden scroll was hidden there and so was her father's old Katana.

The compound was located near the shore of the river where a big rock stood, of course that was no simple rock, there had been placed an illusion had made it seem bigger that it actually was.

"Kai!" Kushina said dispelling the wards that luckily still worked, a portion of the rock disappeared revealing two columns with teal colored seals placed on them and a door that could only be opened by a descendant of the Uzumaki's using their blood to unlock it. Biting her thumb Kushina ran her the bloody finger on the doors seal and focused chakra on it, if the blood seal reacted to the chakra that would mean that the one trying to enter was an Uzumaki, if it didn't the exploding seals which had been implanted on the stone would activate and blast the intruders to the next realm.

Of course as expected the blood seal reacted signifying that one of Uzumaki blood wished to enter. The door hissed a little before opening. Kushina looked down the stairs that led to the compounds main hall.

In the center of the hall's floor there was a big blue spiral with grey decals, which represented the Uzumaki clan. There were several doors that gave access to the storage rooms, the meditating area and the living quarters.

Her first stop was in one of the storage rooms, several scrolls of different sizes were aligned there, jutsu scrolls and storage ones, on the back of the room was a chest with several seal locks, in that chest was contained the Forbidden scroll of Uzugakure no Sato. It been pure luck that this place hadn't been found during the destruction of the village.

Wandering to the equipment and scroll room, Kushina took a small blue storage scroll with a red trim, the scroll had the label equipment, the red trim signified it was for females, for males it was a blue scroll with a green trim. Inside the scroll were articles of clothing for the Uzumaki ninja, this scrolls were used for those ninja who took missions that had them leaving the village for an undercover operation, needless to say reaching a place with equipment on you wouldn't leave a good impression on the eyes that watched you from the shadows.

The living quarters of the place had some beds for those who spent nights there from time to time, also there were some showers were one could wash itself.

Kushina walked to the showers, unsealing the pieces of clothing on the small table that was there, she lined up the various items, one of the things that she didn't like were tight pants that came with the female oriented equipment, quickly creating some shadow clones, she sent one to pick up a male scroll and the others to keep watch in case something or someone tried to enter the place.

Checking the showers, she saw that they were working alright even after the amount of time that they hadn't been used.

The red haired woman took off her tattered cloak, shedding all of her clothing, she slipped on the shower letting the warm water wash over her toned body that had been trained for years until it was a perfect weapon, a free willed weapon, that choose its allegiance and followed who it wanted. Her muscles relaxed, she really needed that, all problems of the world leaving her for that moment.

For a relaxing half-hour Kushina took a shower washing away all her sins, fears and insecurity for the future.

She slipped out of the shower, dripping water, the clone she had sent to collect another equipment scroll was already there, with a towel prepared for her, the clone passed her master the towel before dispelling with a smile. Kage Bunshin was such a useful jutsu.

After drying her hair she quickly took a new set of underwear. Her body functions were asking for rest, so she decided that a little nap was in order, sealing the others items on the scroll, she made a sentient shadow clone that would keep active even when she lost concentration, these clones were made by pumping at least four times more chakra on them.

"Wake me up in five hours." She ordered the clone before lying in a bed and entering the land of dreams.

**-X0X-**

Team 7, walked along the streets of Konoha carrying a jailed Tora, to prevent the little devil that took so much work to capture from escaping. They had been at it for about three hours before they had been able to corner the "thing" as Sasuke said from running away, Naruto said it was the reincarnation of the Kyuubi that had come back to life to mock the poor hapless souls that were dispatched to catch the animal, the scratches on the blonds cheeks were still itching. The three genin were becoming very miffed with the missions that had been given to them.

Sakura didn't understand why they were being given chores to do, the stories the Academy told them about adrenaline pumping missions that every wannabe ninja dreamed of were nothing like what they were doing, the reality was much more boring, but good things had came from this since they didn't have missions that took more than a few hours to complete they were able to receive extenuating but gratifying training sessions from their sensei, it seemed that if motivated Kakashi could be a real slave driver, in their first day he had given them all corporal gravity seals that from what the man had said trained all the body's muscles instead of just some like the weights, the rest of his training would be about teamwork tactics, taijutsu spars and the rare ninjutsu training, her sensei had taught her a very useful earth jutsu that didn't waste as much chakra as the fire one she knew that depleted at least half of her reserves each time she used it, the jutsu was also a lot fun to use on her teammates too. Training from Kakashi hadn't been the only one she had been taking, Hana or Hana-nee-san as the pink haired girl called her had been teaching her some of the basics of medical ninja skills, such as treating several weapon injuries and basic poisons, the Inuzuka seemed to know a little of human treatment, but of course her forte was animal treatment. Her clothing had changed, she now wore a dark green vest with a Haruno circle on the back, a fishnet sleeve poked out of her left side, her forearms were protected by fishnet bracers, navy-blue Capri covered her legs along with also navy-blue shinobi sandals that she wore on her feet. Her weapons pouch and kunai holster were on their regular places, on the right side of her waist was a square brown pouch that held all of her medical supplies. Her hitei-ite had been dyed green and was resting on her head like a headband.

Naruto was easily the one who was most annoyed of the three genin, these missions didn't go very well for him, he wanted to fight ninja, for kami's sake he wanted to kick butt, in his opinion the missions they were doing were good for the Academy students who needed some pocket money, not for Genin, low level ninja or not, these missions weren't good enough for him. For the last three months since graduation they had been training with their sensei, the man had taught him a water C-rank jutsu Suiton: Mizurappa (Water release: Violent Water Wave), the jutsu sure was cool but it didn't do much damage, he only trained occasionally with Anko since she had missions to do most of the time. The boy was now wearing his new clothes, he had his pitch black jacket with the metal plates on the arms, his legs were covered by the rust red pants with black flames on the bottom, feet covered by black shinobi sandals, hands protected by black plated fingerless gloves, around his waist were two black belts crossed in a X-shaped manner, the two grey weapon pouches Inu had given him for his birthday on were strapped on the belts , side to side on his lower back, the two kunai holsters Iruka had given him were tied with some bandages on his tights, fully supplied with weapons, Naruto's headband was now black and it was tied around the boy's forehead.

Sasuke's line of thought was among the same lines of Naruto's, he too was beginning to get bored with the pathetic missions they were doing, he wanted to test his strength against other enemy ninja, not weed out some old woman's garden, babysit or definitely catch the "thing" as he so called it. Over these four moths he had a lot of things to think of especially about his two teammates, they had shown him nothing but kindness and sought his companionship saying that he should relax and live life more. There were times in which Sasuke had almost opened up to his teammates but his brother's words would ring on his head, telling to hate him and to shed all weakness, bonds were a weakness so Sasuke thought, but sometimes his mind would argue with him telling him the contrary. Training with Kakashi was surely rewarding for Sasuke as the man had taught them many things, Sasuke learned that his Chakra Affinity was Lightning, Kakashi had taught him Raiton: Raikyu (Lightning Release: Lightning Ball) it was a C-rank Lightning jutsu that created a ball made of thunder that could be thrown into the enemy really fast giving them a good zap, and leaving some numbness. In appearance Sasuke hadn't changed, he still wore the same he did on the Academy.

Their way to the Tower was a very silent one, Sasuke and Naruto kept sending Tora glares, the cat seemed to mock them from inside the cage, like it was telling them that it would escape the moment they opened the cage's door.

Inside the Hokage's office were four people, the Hokage, their sensei Iruka, some unknown chunin and Madam Shijimi, the daimyo's wife.

"Tora-chan!" The woman cried when she saw the cat being carried by Team 7. She quickly snatched the cage and took her pet from inside it, proceeding to squeeze the life out of the poor animal.

"No wonder it ran away." Sakura whispered looking at the treatment the woman was giving to the cat. She sweat dropped at her teammates expressions.

Naruto and Sasuke had these really sadistic smirks at the sight of the "Thing's" torture, after catching the cat almost every day this sight was very pleasant to them, as the two male genin had been scratched more times than they could count.

"Very good Team 7, you were able to catch the cat for Madam Shijimi, come here to receive your payment."The Hokage told them.

"Now I'm sure you want another mission right?" He asked the Team in front of him.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes Hokage-sama we want another mission." The silver haired jonin said not hearing the groans from his team.

"Well we have various missions available, you can go dig potatoes for Uzumi-san, take care of Goma-san's baby-" The Hokage was interrupted by a shout.

"Tora-chan! Come back!" Madam Shijimi shouted to her running cat.

"Well you just came back, you're still fresh, so what do you think?" He offered them.

Kakashi looked at his students Sasuke and Sakura had neutral expressions, but Naruto, the boy was shaking, all the frustration he had was going to be released, he had noticed the boy was not pleased with what they had been doing. The whole mess would fall in Kakashi's head when the Hokage berated him for not teaching manners to his students. _"Why me?" _

Naruto finally snapped after containing himself for three months.

"NO I WANT ANOTHER MISSION!" The boy shouted to his Village's leader.

"_That's it I'm doomed." _The masked jonin thought covering his face with his hand in shame.

**-X0X-**

"Master! Master!" The clone called the sleeping Kushina.

Kushina opened her eyes to see her clone shaking her shoulder.

"Master wake up!" the clone said. "It's already been the amount of time you asked to watch over you. My chakra is on its limit."

Indeed it was the clone was looking a little pale, a sign that it was on its last moments of existence.

"Ok thanks for waking me up, you can dispel now." Kushina told her clone that nodded and dispelled with a smile.

The woman stretched her body, yawning. She looked at her seminude body clad only in simple black underwear, her body showed some small scars, marks of battles long ago.

She grabbed the equipment scroll she had taken and started unsealing the various articles of clothing that were sealed inside. The Uzumaki clan shinobi attire was very much alike the ones used in Konoha by their ninja, except for the differences in colors. It consisted of a tight dark blue short sleeved shirt with the Uzumaki's blue spiral on both shoulders that hugged Kushina's body comfortably, a pair of tight dark blue pants, which the read head replaced with the males baggy dark blue pants, black shinobi sandals, a black flak vest that had six pockets for small storage scrolls that had the Uzumaki insignia on the back, over her left shoulder she placed a black steel pauldron with the clan's symbol, her hands and forearms were covered by dark blue fingerless gloves that had black metal plates covering the backhand and the forearm, finally she placed a black knee pad on her right knee. Inside the scroll was also a new porcelain mask that was white with several dark blue triangles over the left part of the mask, she just stored the mask on her belt for the time being.

Getting out of the living quarters Kushina's next stop was again the equipment and scroll room, there she reached the big chest that was inside.

The locks were opened curiously by placing blood on the seals they had behind and not by opening it with keys. Inside the chest was a big white scroll with blue trim. That was Uzugakure's greatest ninja treasure, their Forbidden scroll, while not containing as much techniques as the one from Konoha it didn't mean they were less useful or even deadly, all their knowledge had been stored there since the founding of the village dozens of years ago.

Taking a big blue sealing scroll (About the same size the one Tenten uses in part 2) from the shelves she grabbed the forbidden scroll and sealed it on the other scroll, she took several others and sealed them too.

Next she went to the weapons storage, this room had several shelves that once again were filled with scrolls, these ones had been labeled as Kunai or shuriken, sealing the weapons inside scrolls was a method of extending their longevity. From the several tools on the room besides the weapons, Kushina also took a round black pouch that she filled with weapons, a kunai holster that she also equipped and a black square pouch that she would later fill with medical supplies, she would buy at a village. The kunai holster and weapons pouch were placed in their regular places while the black square pouch was tied to the right side of Kushina's waist.

In the middle of the meditation room was her father's old Katana, the hilt and scabbard were black in color, the guard was silvery grey, overall the sword was 49 inches, 39 for the blade and another 10 for the hilt. The Katana had been forged by an old Kiri sword master with special iron from Tetsu no Kuni (Land of Iron), her father had used his own chakra to help forge the blade making it extremely resistant to damage, according to her father the sword had took a hit from a Kiri Zanbatou without having chakra gathered on it and hadn't a single dent, the blade was a shiny silvery color, near the hilt it had a Uzumaki spiral adorning it, the spiral also served as a custom chakra seal that permitted gathering chakra on the blade more easily and with less waste. The Katana's name was Uzu no Konpaku (Soul of the Whirlpool).

Kushina gazed at it remembering the time her father had told her about the tale of the sword and that one day the sword would be passed on to her marking her as the new ruler of Uzugakure and its people.

Lighting several incense sticks, Kushina prayed a while for the ones who gave their souls for the village and her.

Beneath the holder of the sword was a small black ornate sealing scroll with several golden decals of serpentine looking dragons.

She unsheathed the sword taking a look at its blade, focusing chakra at the custom seal, the blade gained a slight aura around it. It seemed the blade was still in good condition. Kushina sealed the sword on the scroll and placed it on one of her vest pockets.

The last Uzumaki left the room, the other room contained food but she wouldn't dare enter that one as most of its content would be more than just rotten, putting on her mask Kushina prepared to leave the secret compound. The big sealing scroll was slung over her shoulders.

Taking one last look at the compound Kushina prepared left the compound to never again return there.

She breathed the fresh air outside.

"Yama Daimaru, his last sighting was said to be in Nami no kuni. Seems like I'll be able to pay Gato a little visit too." She said to herself before leaving the place.

**-X0X-**

"NO I WANT ANOTHER MISSION!"

"Naruto! Pay some respect to the Hokage!" Iruka shouted at the boy from his seat.

Waving his arms Sarutobi Hiruzen told the young teacher to lie off. "Now now Iruka there's no need to shout in here you too Naruto." The man said in his peaceful tone.

"But Hokage-sama he's…" Iruka started but the Hokage shut him up.

"Naruto you say you want another mission? May I ask you why?" The Hokage wanted to know what was wrong with his surrogate grandson and the missions he had been assigning him.

"Jiji, these missions are so boring, they're good for academy students, but for a ninja like me!" Naruto explained the man. "How am I supposed to become Hokage, if I don't do appropriate missions! I want to battle enemy ninja, not catch cats and weed gardens!" He tried to reason with the old Hokage.

"Listen Naruto-kun the mission we issue are separated in ranks. From D to A, lowest to highest, you are a Genin, D-rank missions are usually given to Genin because they have no danger, these missions are used to strengthen the bond and teamwork between the team, you will occasionally take a C-rank mission but that's it, C-ranks are normally issued to Chunins, these ones are more dangerous since there is the possibility of encountering enemies, B-ranks are issued to chunin or jonin in these ones you will definitely encounter enemy ninja and there is the possibility of death, then lastly there are A-ranks that are issued to jonin only, these missions contain mortal danger and only the best ninja are able to take these one as the presence of enemy ninja is granted." The Hokage finished his explanation. The Hokage couldn't help but develop a tick on his forehead when he saw that the team in front of him wasn't even paying attention to what he said.

"… and then I ate this new ramen flavor, and I was like, Teuchi-jiji this is good but…" Naruto had his back turned to the Hokage, while telling his story.

His team was apparently more interested on what the boy was telling than in the Hokage's explanation.

"ARE YOU LISTENNING TO ME!" The Hokage shouted to Team 7.

Team 7 quickly turned their attention to the old man.

"Jiji I understand your reasoning, but theses missions are boring and we need more experience in the battlefield, sooner or later you'll have to let us do one of these missions." Naruto explained the Hokage. "So please give us a C-rank, please." The boy made puppy eyes.

"Alright, alright, what do Naruto's teammates think about this?" The old Hokage asked Sasuke and Sakura.

Sasuke as always kept silent, the only answer was a nod. _"I'm with the dobe on this one, these missions are worthless."_

"I think I would like you should let us try Hokage-sama, we'll never know if we don't try it don't we." Sakura was more vocal on her opinion, she too wanted a new kind of mission.

The Hokage turned to Kakashi. "You're their sensei? The last decision is yours."

Kakashi sighed. "I think a simple escort mission would be good, nothing to dangerous."

"I see, let me find one, just a moment." Sarutobi searched his mission stack for an appropriate C-rank mission. "Ah here it is! Tazuna-san could you please come in."

From the door came a man in brown clothes, the man seemed to be drinking a bottle of sake.

"Is this the team who's going to be protecting me?" The man inquired adjusting his glasses. "They seem to have gotten out of their diapers not long ago, especially the short one with the stupid look on his face."

Naruto laughed at the man's insult. "Who's the short one with the stupid look on his face?" Sasuke and Sakura approached him from behind.

When the blond compared their heights, the look on his face became murderous, Kakashi quickly grabbed the boy by the collar of his jacket.

"Let me at him!" Naruto shouted struggling against his sensei's grasp.

"Baka! You aren't supposed to kill your contractors." Kakashi told Naruto while shaking his head in exasperation. "I'm sorry for this Hokage-sama could you please tell us the details of the mission."

"This here is Tazuna-san, he's a bridge builder from Nami no Kuni, your mission is to escort him there and protect him during the construction of his new bridge, the estimated duration of this mission his of one month." The Hokage informed them about their new mission.

"Meet me on the Gates in an hour I want to get to my home by the end of the week." Tazuna told them.

**-X0X-**

In less than an hour the three genin and their contractor were on the front of the gates waiting for the always late Kakashi.

Naruto was hyper about this new mission, he had never left the village before, so this would be his first time out of the place.

"You guys are already here but where's the silver haired guy?" Tazuna asked not knowing Kakashi's antics.

"Kakashi-sensei is normally always late for his assignments so we'll have to wait a little still." Sakura explained the man.

"A little? How much is that." Tazuna asked not liking the idea of waiting for the team leader no less.

Sakura shrugged. "Two, three hours normally." She said like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Tazuna's jaw dropped to the floor. "Two three hours!" the man said incredulously.

"Yeah, that's the usual time, but sometimes he arrives later, six hours is the maximum." Naruto joined in the conversation.

Tazuna sulked. _"What kind of team is this? The genins look like idiots and the jonin is a guy who suffers from chronic tardiness."_

At the exact same time the clock marked one hour after their meeting a cloud of smoke appeared near them.

"Yo!" A voice called.

Looking at where said voice had come the genin's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, there stood their sensei not arriving late for once.

"_He's not late!"_ The genin looked at the man strangely.

"Well let's get going." Kakashi said with his eyes glued on his book.

They left Konoha with Naruto in front of the group. His head looking around frantically at everything he saw the trees, the animals everything.

"Hey are sure that blond monkey is capable of protecting me?" Tazuna asked Kakashi having second thoughts about the team.

"Don't worry, if there is any problem they'll protect you effectively. And if it serves as an assurance I'm a jonin so you're perfectly safe, besides this is only a C-rank mission, so we'll most likely encounter some road bandits, but nothing more than that." Kakashi reassured the man.

"_What am I going to tell them when they learn that Gato sent ninja after me!" _The man thought, trying to imagine the kind of trouble he would be in when they found out he lied about the ranking of the mission.

The first day passed without any apparent problem, but the second one was going to be different.

On the second day, the team passed by a seemingly inoffensive puddle of water, Naruto and Sasuke just shrugged it off while Sakura and her sensei took a more critical eye.

"_A puddle of water, it hasn't rained in days! There's something off in here!" _She met her sensei's eye, the look he had told her everything she needed to know, she had to alert her teammates.

From the so called puddle a head covered with a Kirigakure hitei-ite and a breather device appeared.

"They seem to not have noticed us Meizu." Gozu said to his brother.

"Yeah let's get them. We get that jonin first and then we go for the old man, the kids will be no problem." Meizu said as both of the demon brothers prepared to launch themselves against Team 7.

"Let's go!"They said to each other.

Ahead Kakashi felt their presence coming from behind, they were after something. Something or someone. _"Well let's see what they are after."_

The two brothers rushed at Kakashi, quickly wrapping the man around their Shuriken styled chain. With a strong pull the silver haired man was ripped to shreds his blood flying everywhere.

Naruto stared in horror incapable to move, these two guys had just killed his sensei.

"One down!" They said in unison, before rushing at Naruto.

Sasuke however wasn't so horrified like his other teammate. He grabbed a shuriken and a kunai and threw them at the chain the two attackers were using, successfully pinning them to a tree.

The two chunin tried to free themselves but weren't able.

Sasuke meanwhile approached them from the air and kicked them on the face. The two men didn't like the idea of being kicked by a mere genin as they detached their claws from the chain.

"Meizu go after that kid, while I take care of the old man!" Gozu the one in a black cloak with a claw in his right arm told the other one who was using camouflage pattern clothing with a claw on the left arm.

"You got it Gozu just hurry up!" Meizu said to his brother rushing in direction to Sasuke who was doing hand-seals already.

Gozu ran straight at Tazuna who was being protected by Sakura. The girl was in front of the man threw a kunai trying to slow the man down. The weapon was deflected by the claw easily.

"Naruto snap out of it!" She shouted at her blond friend who seemed to be frozen at his place.

"**Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu." **Sasuke shot a ball of fire to Meizu who was running in his direction. "Dobe move your ass!" He too shouted to the blond boy.

Naruto regaining his attention saw that the black cloaked man running in the direction of Sakura. Quickly creating a few Kage bunshin, the boy and his clones caught the man by the cloak and threw him back.

The two brothers rallied for a moment before charging at the genin again.

Suddenly before they could get any closer to the genin two arms wrapped around their necks in a powerful clothesline.

The genin stared at who had saved them.

Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei you're alive!" Sakura exclaimed happily.

"Sorry for doing that guys. I had to check on something, Good job in protecting Tazuna-san Sasuke, Sakura." Kakashi told his students.

Naruto closed his fists tightly. _"What happened to me, Why did this happen?" _The boy berated himself in his mind. _"Why did I freeze? Things could have gone bad if Kakashi-sesnei hadn't appeared. I left Sakura-chan and Sasuke to fend for themselves. And I'm the one who's always telling Sasuke that we must work as a team."_

"Now Tazuna-san, would you explain why those two chunin-level ninja attacked us?" Kakashi inquired the man his aloof demeanor replaced by a serious look.

"I don't know maybe they were after you or the kids!" Tazuna said sweating.

"Not likely, the kids are genin fresh out of the academy, they are too young to have enemies yet. And me? They wouldn't send chunin, it would be a jonin or even ANBU. So the only plausible target would be you." Kakashi said pointing at the man. "Now start talking!"

The old man told them the story of how his country had been taken by Gato and how he wanted to kill Tazuna for trying to build a bridge that would help Nami no Kuni recover from the state it was and after that he tried to guilt trip the Konoha-nin, by telling them about the reactions of his daughter and grandson.

After hearing the story Kakashi sighed. "I could just turn back and end this mission, but I'm going to give my team a choice. What do you three think?" He asked his students

"We're going Kakashi-sensei! You heard what he said if we abandon him he's going to get killed." Naruto was the first to answer, his fists were clenched. From what Kakashi could see Naruto was still berating himself for freezing up.

"I'm with the dobe on this. We should continue." Sasuke said, he too wanted to continue and if more ninja appeared the better.

"Me too Kakashi-sensei! We can't leave the people of Nami just like that." Sakura too agreed with her teammates.

"Ok it seems like we're going to continue." Kakashi said smiling at Tazuna._ "This mission has just shot up in rank, but its true Tazuna-san will only be killed if we let him go alone. Damn it! I hate when things go like this." _

Sakura looked worriedly at Naruto wanting to comfort him but her sensei beat her there.

Kakashi placed a hand in Naruto's shoulder. "Naruto? Are you alright?" He asked concerned for his student. His mother would kill him if he didn't do anything to help the boy. And he would face a bunch of A-rank missing-nins preferably than an angry mother, especially senpai.

"I'm fine Kakashi-sensei." The boy said in a low tone.

"Don't beat yourself because of what happened, it happens to the best, just try not to let your teammates alone next time alright?" The silver haired man squeezed Naruto's shoulder giving the boy some moral support. "Do you promise to don't freeze next time?"

Naruto nodded. "I promise Kakashi-sensei! And I always keep my promises. You know that!" Naruto said with renewed determination, as Gai would say his flames of youth were burning more brightly than ever. Kakashi shivered a little at the thought of the spandex wearing man.

"_I won't stay idle again! I'm the next Hokage! I'm not going to chicken out again! Believe it!"_

**-X0X-**

Through the forests of Nami no Kuni, Kushina jumped, she had reached the country a few hours ago. She now was making her way to the town where she would go gather information about her target.

After reaching Nami she had summoned a couple of hawks to scout ahead for her in case of any danger.

It had taken about a week to get to the country.

"_I wonder what my son is doing, how will he react when he learns I'm alive, Will he hate me? Will he accept me with open arms? What will happen?" _Kushina hadn't told anyone but she felt really insecure about meeting her son, after letting him alone for twelve years he'd probably hate her.

She remembered the night when she was taken away from him. _"Those black clad ANBU, who were they? Kakashi-kun said that they may be from ROOT, but wasn't ROOT disbanded years ago? They took me away from my son to try to use him as a weapon, if not for Sarutobi's beliefs of not using people as living weapons my boy would have been turned in a mindless killing machine. If this man Danzo is behind me being separated from my son Konoha elder or not he will pay… with his life!"_

Her train of thought was stopped by the cry of one her scouting hawks.

The bird descended to alert its master. "Kushina-sama!" The summon said.

Kushina extended her arm so the bird could rest on her arm and tell her what it had seen.

"Kushina-sama! Some miles from here…" The bird told her what it had seen.

Kushina's widened. "What is he doing here!"

**-X0X-**

Kakashi blamed karma, yes karma was the cause of the new mess they had just gotten themselves into. Just an hour ago they had reached Nami, the rest of the trip had gone without any problem, until out of nowhere Naruto had said he felt something on the bushes, of course he a jonin would have felt something but he didn't, so he dismissed it as Naruto just being paranoid, but when the boy had gone to see what was in the bushes, all that he found was a white rabbit, a white rabbit in the middle of the freaking summer, besides white rabbits had to raised in cold places or their fur would be brown. Of course when he finished his thoughts he barely had any time to warn his students that a large zanbatou was coming in their direction trying to cleave them in half, luckily they had been able to get down before anyone had been hurt.

Looking at the tree Kakashi couldn't help but groan, of all the people that could have been sent to kill Tazuna, it had to be the one now standing on the zanbatou that was stuck on the tree, Momochi Zabuza, Kirigakure no Kijin (Demon of the Hidden Mist), a former member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shu (Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist), how did the Nara say… yeah troublesome.

"My, my. No wonder the demon brothers failed!" Zabuza said from the place where he was.

"So they were sent by you Momochi Zabuza!" Kakashi said bitterly.

"Yes they were! Of all the people that would be escorting the old man I never expected you to be the one Sharingan no Kakashi." Zabuza announced taking note on the man's students expression. "Don't tell me you your students don't about your reputation Hatake."

"Kakashi-sensei what does he means?" Sakura asked wanting to know what that man meant.

"_Sharingan? That's my clan's Kekkei Genkai. What does he mean by that? No one outside the clan has the Sharingan." _Sasuke looked at his sensei. Did the man have the Sharingan or was that just a title.

"You really haven't told them have you? I'll tell them. Your sensei here is known as Sharingan no Kakashi or the Copy ninja, the man who's said to have copied over a thousand jutsu! We had a kill on sight order on you when I was in ANBU." Zabuza said while watching the Genin's shocked expressions.

"Enough Zabuza! " Kakashi glared at the man.

"Yes it's enough, leave the man and I'll let you guys go with your go with your lives." The former Kiri-nin threatened.

"We can't do that Zabuza, our mission is to protect Tazuna-san. It seems that a fight is inevitable." Kakashi didn't like the prospects but that didn't mean he wouldn't fight, by the contrary he would fight, Zabuza wouldn't leave them alone till he was six feet under.

"It's seems so." Zabuza grabbed his sword.

Kakashi lifted his hitei-ite, revealing his Sharingan.

"So you aren't pulling any punches are you now Kakashi." Zabuza stated when he saw the silver haired man pulling his hitei-ite. " Let's see how I fare against the Sharingan."

"_So he has the Sharingan! How?" _Sasuke thought in amazement, how someone who was from another clan could have his clan's dojutsu.

"What's the Sharingan?" Naruto asked turning to Sakura.

The answer however came from another source. Sasuke. " It's the most powerful Kekkei Genkai in Konoha, a dojutsu."

"A dojutsu? You mean like the Byakugan?" Again the blond asked.

"It's nothing like the Byakugan! Its way more powerful than it, the Sharingan lets you copy jutsus, but it also does more than that. It lets you see the chakra of the user's enemy and read their movements." Sasuke told his teammates. "It's the Kekkei Genkai of the Uchiha clan."

Naruto looked at his teammate, as if asking if he had it.

Sasuke shook his head. "I haven't unlocked it yet!" The last Uchiha whispered this.

Unfortunately for him Zabuza heard this. "So your Uchiha Sasuke huh? Your eyes will earn me a lot of money on the black market."

"You'll have to go through me to reach my students Zabuza!" Kakashi lifted a kunai showing he was ready to fight.

Grasping his sword Zabuza jumped into the nearby lake, landing in the top of the water.

The man made hand-seals. **"Kirigakure no jutsu. (Hidden Mist technique)" **The surrounding area was filled with mist diminishing the visibility.

Than out of nowhere the air around became heavier, the Genin started trembling a little. The two older ninja were now releasing their killing intent.

The fight had officially begun.

"_What is this? This feeling of dread, is this how it feels to witness two jonin fight. I can't hold in here! I have to do something to ease this feeling." _Sasuke lifted his kunai to do something about it but Kakashi stopped him.

"Sasuke calm down! I won't let my teammates get hurt! Trust me!" Kakashi shouted to Sasuke who visibly calmed down, still he had the kunai in front of him in a protective manner.

"Fool you gave away your position!" Zabuza exclaimed appearing behind Kakashi. The former Kiri-nin swung with sword to cut the man in half.

The genin were surprised when they saw heir sensei turn into water instead of a chopped in half body.

"So you saw the jutsu through the mist? I must say that Sharingan of yours is impressive!" The man said.

"And it will be the last thing you'll see if I can help it!" Kakshi's voice said from behind the other man.

Zabuza too turned into water when the Kakashi stabbed him in the kidneys.

"To be able to see through the mist and copy my jutsu, you must have done that when you were calming the pathetic Uchiha kid down." This time it was Zabuza who was behind Kakashi. "I've got you now Hatake."

"Think again!" Kakashi stated as he too turned into water.

"Oh very well you fooled me but then again…"

"Then again you're not even here are you Zabuza." The true Kakashi appeared and destroyed the water clone.

Focusing a little of his chakra Kakashi blew away some of the mist. There on the middle of the lake stood Zabuza with his hands in a hand-seal.

Several water clones appeared to fight against Kakashi.

The silver man tugged his kunai, preparing to fight the clones, while they weren't as strong as their master, their numbers could prove difficult.

Zabuza's clones launched themselves at Kakashi, who started dodging several sword attacks.

Their numbers certainly were difficult to defeat, Kakashi moved fast as he dodged and counter-attacked with punches and Kunai swipes. Soon enough the clones were defeated but that was when Kakashi noticed he had fallen in Zabuza's plan. He had left his team and Tazuna alone.

Appearing behind the Genin, the man prepared to cut them in half, if not for Kakashi being fast enough to block the sword's strike.

"You're in the way Hatake!" Zabuza said angrily kicking the man.

Kakashi was sent several meters away from where he was. Getting up he was attacked with a merciless barrage of sword attacks courtesy of Zabuza.

Zabuza kept attacking the man making him approach the lake.

Being aware of this fact Kakashi threw various makibishi spikes to the ground to keep the swordsman from attacking.

"Please Hatake, as a bunch of spikes would stop me!" Zabza was about to walk over them when he noticed a substance dripping from the spikes. "Very clever, they're poisoned huh?"

Kakashi took in a deep breath, all that blocking had taken its toll on him. He was now feeling winded, but he still had fight enough in him to go against Zabuza.

"Well it's time to step this up a notch!" With that Zabuza slammed the blunt side of his blade on the silver haired jonin.

He was sent flying into the lake.

When he tried to get up he felt the water heavier than normal. "Wait this is…" Kakashi never finished his sentence as a sphere of heavy water enveloped him entirely.

Laughing Zabuza announced. "Hahaha you fell in my Suiro no jutsu (Water Prison technique)."

Looking at his students Kakashi couldn't of any other thing to say. "Run! Get away from here now! Take Tazuna-san and complete the mission! Go now!" He ordered his students.

Naruto being the hard head of the group refused. "And what about you Kakashi-sensei we can't leave you here!" The boy shouted at his sensei.

"Don't care about me I'll be okay! Just go!" Kakashi shouted to his students he didn't want them to get hurt by Zabuza.

The blond boy shook his head. "Sorry sensei but I won't. You told us that those who break the rules are scum. But those who those who abandon their friends, are even worse than scum."

He glanced at Tazuna.

The man just nodded and said. "Go ahead, you're in this whole mess because of me but please be careful kid."

Turning to his teammates Naruto asked them. "Are you ready guys?"

His teammates clutched their weapons and nodded.

"Oh so you think you can beat me you ninja wannabe! So to let you know when my Village was still called Village of the Bloody Mist, I killed an entire graduating class with my own hands and I wasn't even your age!" Zabuza stated proudly.

"Village of the Bloody Mist?" Naruto asked knowing he wouldn't like the answer.

"Yes, years ago the graduation test on the village was to kill your best friend in combat! The one you ate with, the one you talked and joked with. It's was a test to create the perfect Shinobi… an emotionless living weapon." Zabuza finished telling the story to the horrified genin. "So you see these hands were stained with blood even before I were your age!"

Naruto trembled a little. _"No get a grip of yourself, you promised you wouldn't chicken out again." _ The blond clenched his fist. "Bring it you bastard, I'll show you!"

"Oh will you Wannabe ninja? Let's see how you fare against a clone first!" Zabuza created a water clone with a one handed-seal.

The clone materialized near the Genin and said. "Well what are you waiting for boy show me if your worthy of your hitei-ite."

Not being able to contain himself anymore Naruto rushed at the clone, trying to stab it with a kunai.

Without much surprise the boy was kicked away by the clone who took away the boy's hitei-ite.

"Naruto!" Sakura said worriedly to her blond crush as she watched him crash near her. She didn't like seeing him getting thrown away like that.

"You'll pay for what you did to Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed sending a wave of senbon to the clone.

The clone merely swung his sword in front of him, blocking the needles. "Just stay in your corner will you little girl, I'll get to you in due time."

"Shut up you bastard don't talk like that to Sakura-chan." Naruto said while getting up.

"Oh a little protective of her are we? I'll love to see the look on your eyes when I kill her!" Zabuza was getting in the boy's nerves.

"SHUT UP!" Naruto shouted, his hands on a cross shaped hand-seal.

The boy created a bunch of clones.

"Alright guys let's get him!" The real Naruto shouted to the man launching himself with his clones.

Once again the clone Zabuza swung his sword and destroyed the doppelgangers. The real Naruto was once again kicked away.

"Kage bunshin huh' nice trick and your toys are nice too, but only when you have killed enough that it doesn't faze will you have a place on my book, then it's the day you'll be considered a true ninja in my book, right now you're just a hopeless brat who seeks his death."

Getting up again Naruto spat his blood on the ground. "Don't underestimate me! I'm the nest Hokage!" The boy said with his eyes shadowed, his voice was deeper too.

"The next Hokage? Don't make me laugh you pathetic excuse of a Shinobi, you don't even have a hitei-ite to prove it. See he-… What?" The clone noticed that he didn't have the hitei-ite with him. It was on Naruto's hands.

"Looking for something?" The blond couldn't help but grin when he tied up his hitei-ite on his forehead again.

"So you got it back. Big deal you still can't beat me." The clone scoffed.

Creating another batch of clone Naruto turned to his teammates. "Guys I have an idea!" He explained his plan to them.

Sasuke was impressed by the devious plan the blond had devised.

Sakura being used to Naruto's sudden bursts of intelligence nodded, agreeing with his plan. "Ok let's do it!"

The clones launched themselves at the Zabuza clone.

"I can't believe you're doing this again!" The clone slashed all the Narutos rapidly.

That was when he noticed that Sasuke and Sakura where finishing hand-seals. **"Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu." **Both genins blew out fire from their mouths.

"A fire jutsu… please." The clone scoffed again, but his eyes widened when he heard another jutsu being called.

"**Fuuton: Daitoppa." **Naruto fired his explosion of wind that mixed with two and created a powerful swirling mass of fire that completely consumed the clone.

"**Kasai Senpuu no jutsu (Fire Whirlwind Technique)." **Naruto announced the man, but they didn't stop there. Sasuke was already jumping in the air with a fuma shuriken on his hand to throw at Zabuza.

"Eat this!" The Uchiha launched the big shuriken at the man.

The Shuriken sped towards Zabuza, who surprisingly didn't catch or dodge the shuriken.

He used his sword to deflect the Shuriken. His eyes widened when he noticed a second one coming on the other's shadow.

In an amazing show of speed and agility Zabuza placed his sword in his back and caught the Shuriken when it reached him.

Sasuke and Sakura gasped in horror when they saw the Shuriken had been caught by the man, but it wasn't because of the Shuriken but because of what the shuriken really was.

"What a strange Shuriken I must say. Or is it really a Shuriken." He tightened his grip on the weapon until he had a reaction.

POOF.

With a hand on his throat Zabuza started crushing Naruto's windpipe.

Kakashi looked helplessly at his student. _"No this can't be happenng not here! Not know!"_

"Now you will die Stupid brat!"

And then when all seemed from out of nowhere a voice said.

"Take your filthy hands out of Naruto." After the voice said this the biggest amount of Killing Intent Zabuza had ever felt hit him full force like a ton of bricks.

Kakashi's eyes widened. _"Impossible!"_

"… Kushina-senpai…"

**-X0X-**

**A/N: Whew done what a beast of a chapter, hope you liked, especially No1 Knuckle-Headed Ninja and Dragon and Sword Master who sent me two very good pieces of constructive criticism, to you two my sincerest thanks for your opinion on this.**

**And remember stay tuned for next chapter and review please… get it.**

"_**I'm telling you this because you don't get it. You think you get it, which is not the same as actually getting it. Get it?**_**" Hatake Kakashi to Naruto. **

**Leave a few reviews ok? ****See ya.**


	11. A Mother's Regret and Redemption

**Chapter 11- A Mother's Regret and Redemption**

"…Kushina-senpai…"

Before Zabuza could even get a glimpse of the new arrival he was hit by a powerful punch to the face. The man had never felt such a punch in his lifetime. The strength was enough to make him fly a few meters and release Naruto and Kakashi.

He took a look at the newcomer. A woman, by the figure's body structure.

On the shore Sasuke and Sakura gasped when they saw the red headed woman punch Zabuza with that amount of strength.

Blood was spat from Zabuza's mouth, the man had pulled down some of his bandages, showing some of his face. "Who the heck are you? What's your business with the kid?"

Kushina stared at the man who tried to kill her son. "It's none of your business. But know that by trying to kill the boy you have gained a place in hell! One that I'll be pleasured to send you too."

"You! You think you can beat me?" Zabuza looked at the woman like she had gone crazy. "You caught me by surprise, but that doesn't means you'll be able to do it again, as far I know, you don't even are a ninja in my terms."

"Oh I'm not." Kushina stated mockingly. "Know that I have more experience than you and I am more than strong enough to go toe to toe against you and beat you in the process."

"Really? Tell me what name should I put under my most recent kill?" He asked with a blood thirsty smirk.

"Niiroi Arashi." Kushina said in a simple matter letting the name sink in on Zabuza.

From the sides Naruto who was standing on the water looked at the woman in amazement, right in front of him was one of the most powerful Kunoichi that Konoha ever had.

"The Niiroi Arashi? Impossible that bitch is dead." Zabuza said not knowing the grave he was digging for himself.

From behind her mask, Kushina's eye twitched in anger. "What did you call me?" Kushina grabbed the scroll on her back and passed it to Naruto. "Grab this!" Reaching her vest she opened one of the pockets and took a black scroll. From the scroll appeared her Katana.

"Kakashi-kun, Naruto-kun please step back." The Jonin and Genin went to the shore where they would be in more or less security.

Slinging it over her back Kushina unsheathed the blade and pointed it to Zabuza. "Let's go!" Grabbing the Katana's hilt with two hands Kushina charged.

Zabuza laughed at the woman. "You're going to use that metal toothpick? Sure suit yourself! Just don't cry when I shatter it!" The two's blades met, surprisingly for Zabuza, Kushina's blade didn't shatter, crack or even dent.

He looked amazed at the blade. "What? Such quality. Must have been done by quite sword master." He analyzed the blade the longest he could, which was just a few seconds. "That thing has a chakra seal."

"You'll never shatter Uzu no Konpaku." Kushina said pushing the bigger sword with all her strength. "And neither will you beat me."

Pushing the man enough to give her enough breathing space Kushina started slashing repeatedly at the man. The two of them began a series of various combinations of attacks, trying to cut the other one.

Both combatants were evenly matched as Zabuza's superior Kenjutsu skill was matched by the speed that Kushina's Katana allowed her. Sparks flied each time the blades met, the ringing sound of metal clashing against metal inciting them to fight more and more.

At the shore the three genin looked amazed at the woman who was fighting Zabuza like an equal, if not more. Each time the swords met they thought the smaller katana would snap.

"She's so strong. She might even be stronger than Kakashi-sen…" Sakura quickly stopped talking trying to sop what she was saying. "Sorry Kakashi-sensei." The girl apologized.

"No problem Sakura, your right on your assumption, Senpai is stronger than me." Kakashi told his female student.

"Kakashi-sensei! She called herself the Niiroi Arashi is she telling the truth?" Naruto asked his sensei. The woman's voice was very familiar to him. He swore he had heard before, in another state, if he could just remember.

Sasuke looked curiously at the woman. "The Niiroi Arashi is said to be dead, of course that is only speculation but…" Sasuke never finished his thoughts. It couldn't be possible could it, someone as strong as that couldn't be alive, only legends were that strong and that's because people exaggerated in the stories they told, it was like saying the Kiiroi Senko could take on a entire village.

"It's her boys. I assure you of that." Kakashi said to his students looking at the fight intently. The two fighters and sheathed their blades and were going through various hand-seals at the moment.

"_Holy… they're not pulling any punches if they're using B-ranked Jutsus already! This might get dangerous for us." _Kakashi thought recognizing the techniques both combatants were using.

The two warring shinobi, seemed to be have come to the conclusion that fighting with swords would make them go anywhere so they decided to step things up in hopes of being able to annihilate the other. The hand-seals they were doing weren't for simple jutsu, but for B-ranks actually, neither willing to give in to the other. And while Kushina was definitely more experienced than Zabuza, the bandage wearing man was younger and more bloodthirsty.

"**Suiton: Suiryudan (Water Release: Water dragon Missile)." **Zabuza announced his jutsu as a dragon of water started forming behind him.

"**Fuuton: Fuuryudan(Wind Release: ." **Behind Kushina rose a dragon made of cutting winds.

The dragons seemed to glare at each other in defiance, their yellow eyes showing the determination of their masters. Both elemental beasts roared, before slamming into each other.

The wind dragon tore through the water one looming down on Zabuza, who had his eyes wide.

"_Damn it!" _The man thought. He tried to dodge the wind dragon in time but he didn't go unscathed, his body was cut in several places and while the cuts were not very deep, they were still bleeding and with time he would fell the effect of blood loss.

Not letting the former Kiri swordsman recover Kushina kicked him on the side making him fly over some more. With a kunai grasped in her hand she moved to end the man's life.

Zabuza was able to catch her hand before she stabbed him, he tried to crush it, but the woman twisted her hand, grabbing his arms, she jumped and kicked him on the chest with both feet.

Once again Zabuza was thrown away. Kushina landed on her two feet on the water.

Zabuza made about 50 water clones. The water doppelgangers grabbed their swords and started rushing at Kushina.

Looking at the clones Kushina made some hand-seals, she focused chakra on her right hand and then brought it down in a slash like motion. **"Fuuton: Juha Sho (Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm)" **From her hand shot a wind blade wide as the motion she had done.

10 of clones were torn in half by the wind blade, water flying like blood in the air.

Her sword was already on the move when the rest of the clones reached her, wind nature chakra coursing through the swords blade extending its reach even more.

"_Wow." _Naruto thought with his mouth agape while he watched the woman slash the clones when they weren't even in the swords range.

"Kakashi-sensei how is she doing that?" Sakura asked, this woman was so powerful and her fighting style and movements were very solid, but had a certain degree of fluidity on them. Sakura couldn't place where but she swore she had seen movements like that before.

"Senpai is using wind to extend her blade's reach and cutting strength." Kakashi replied to his female students while he looked intently at the fight.

"Whoa you can do that with wind!" Naruto exclaimed. "You'll have to teach me that Kakashi-sensei! Can you?"

Kakashi shook his head negatively. "I don't know how to manipulate Wind in such a way, but Senpai will be more than happy to teach you I'm sure."

"Really that's so cool!" Naruto exclaimed happily. "I'm going to be Hokage in no time."

Sasuke continued looking at the fight while his teammates talked. "Some of those movements are quite similar to those of your taijutsu Naruto." He said with an analytical eye. "Did you see that one." He pointed to Kushina who had just delivered a roundhouse kick to a clone that had got too close.

Sakura's eyes widened. _"Of course their movements are alike. Might they be related?"_

"Heh I should have hired her instead of you." Tazuna said smugly, before receiving four bone-chilling glares from team 7.

Kushina continued slashing through the clones rapidly, she knew Zabuza was planning something, but she had to dispose of the majority of clones. Her hands were getting slippery from the water of the clones.

Uzu no Konpaku's blade slashed the last clone where its head should be, the burst of water indicating the clone was done with.

A chakra rise from behind warned her that she had most likely fallen in Zabuza's trick.

"**Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique)" **A column of water rose and came pouring down on Kushina.

Her eyes looked at the towering column of water in a defying manner, that jutsu was very strong and deadly especially while fighting above water where it would drag her to the bottom of the lake. It was impossible to dodge it now but it's strength could be diminished if something was to go through the column's middle, something Kushina knew and required such a few amount of seals it was ridiculous.

Making hand-seals quickly she announced her jutsu to the world. **"Fuuton: Renkudan (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet)." **Filling her lungs with air Kushina shot a powerful air sphere that like it's name tore through the water like a drill, leaving a huge hole in the middle of it, making it possible to see the sphere slam powerfully into Zabuza. Of course the rest of the column came crashing down on her, but at least it wasn't as powerful as it was originally, so it didn't drag her much, but still it was enough to leave her dazed.

Reaching again to the water edge, the red haired woman pushed herself up, like she was standing in solid ground instead of liquid water.

Breathing a little she started to walk on the downed man's direction, Zabuza had been slammed against a tree by her jutsu. He was bruised, battered and cut, he was going nowhere in that state, he had been lucky her air bullet had lost some of its strength in the water or he would have a hole on his chest.

Staring at her approaching form, Zabuza cursed his bad luck, of all shinobi that could have butted in it had to be a wind Natured one that tore through his water jutsu like a knife through flesh.

"I-i-Im-possible, you are really the Niiroi Arashi aren't you? Those wind technique confirmed it." Zabuza said looking at the woman who was about to kill him.

"I t-told you didn't I. Now you die for trying to hurt my precious son. Just consider yourself lucky his father is dead or you would be dead in a flash, you freaking bastard." Kushina replied raising her kunai. This man was going to pay for what he did and then one less embarrassment to the Shinobi world would be out of this plain. Missing-nin were most of the times traitors and traitors were trash in Kushina's book, trash that should be disposed. Of course there were a few missing-nins that didn't go into that list.

She prepared to bring down the Kunai to finish Zabuza's life.

But before she could stab the man two senbon needles stuck on the man's neck. Since Kushina was still slightly dazed she didn't notice that the place where he had been stuck was not fatal at all.

From the trees a teenager with an ANBU mask dropped. "Thank you for weakening this criminal, but I'll take from here." This ANBU was probably a hunter-nin or so Kushina thought.

"_So young and he's already in the death business. This world sure moves fast. The new generation is already surpassing the old one as it should be." _She thought looking at the young hunter-nin.

"I'm sorry for getting here only now, I could have assisted you." The hunter-nin apologized. "As an apology let me dispose of this criminal's body." The young hunter-nin quickly reached down and took the man over his shoulder. "Good bye." With that he disappeared in a gust of wind.

Kakashi and his team watched the interaction between the two, while approaching.

"Hey you! Who the heck do you think you are! To come here and take him down like that!" Naruto shouted pointing his finger accusingly at the Hunter-nin. "Even Kakashi-sensei had trouble fighting him and you reach here and take him down just like that!"

Placing his hand on the boy's shoulder Kakashi , shook his head telling Naruto off. "Stop it Naruto. In this world there are people that are stronger than me and are younger than me. There's always someone stronger than anyone and if there isn't so then someone will rise to become stronger than that one in a never ending cycle, it's how the world works."

Even not liking to be told off, Naruto did what his sensei told him and backed off still being mad at the Hunter-nin.

Turning to the red haired woman Naruto asked. "Are you okay?"

Kushina shook her head a little trying to lift the dazed state in which she was in. "I'll be in a pinch just let me clear my head, that water jutsu sure took its toll."

After hearing her voice again Naruto recognized her. "Koumyou-san!" He cried in remembrance.

Kushina smiled at him. "So you remember me huh? But that's not my name, not my real one."

"It isn't?" Naruto asked. "Can you tell us your real name since we have already seen your face."

The woman nodded to him. "I'll tell you but not now, Naru-chan."

The boy blushed a little at the name the woman called him.

Sakura glared at her. _"Who does think she is?", _her inner too voiced her opinion. **"Shannaro who do you think you are to call him Naru-chan, you better lay off him or I'll kick your ass Niiroi Arashi or not Niiroi Arashi."**, _"Right… but I think she would destroy me like I was nothing."_

Sasuke snickered a little at the name given to the boy. "…Naru-chan…" He shook his head, seeing Naruto embarrassed was just to fun, to pass.

"What's your problem Teme?" Naruto shouted at the Uchiha who snickered even more.

Watching them bicker made Sakura giggle at their antics.

"Senpai are you alright enough to walk or do you need help?" Kakashi asked.

Kushina slapped the silver haired man's shoulder. "I'm not that old Kakashi-kun."

The Hunter-nin observed their interaction, reaching closer to Zabuza's body. "Well I must be on my way, I apologize for not reaching sooner. Farewell and thank you for helping me catch this criminal, I had been searching for him for quite a time." With that he grabbed Zabuza.

He disappeared before Kakashi or Kushina could stop him.

"Shit!" Kakashi cursed.

"Kakashi-kun please don't say things like that in front of the children." Kushina reprimanded him.

"Hey we're not children we're ninja!" Naruto protested.

"Sure you are, sorry" She apologized.

Kakashi turned to Tazuna. "Tazuna-san, I think we're done here, could you led us to your house, please?"

The bridge builder nodded. "Sure we're almost reaching town, my home is just a few ways from there. Let's go I'll have my daughter prepare something for you guys to eat, you surely deserved it."

"You heard Tazuna-san, let's get going." Kakashi ordered.

The genin groaned and started to follow the man to his house.

"Kakashi-kun?" Kushina called.

"Kushina-senpai?" The man turned to her whispering her name.

"Kakashi-kun, I'll need your help. I… want… to tell… him… today. It wouldn't be very good to tell him when this mess his all over… also we need to tell the kids about Zabuza being alive, we need to tell them." Kushina said to Kakashi, the uneasiness she felt towards her son returning.

"I understand… and don't worry I'll help you Kushina-senpai." The man reassured the older woman.

**-X0X-**

Miles away from our heroes two form appeared at the forest, one being the prone body of Zabuza and the other the false Hunter-nin.

The masked boy watched the prone form of his master curiously as if waiting for a movement, not seeing any kind of movement, the boy reached to take the senbon from his master's neck. And it was in that precise moment that Zabuza moved.

"Damn it Haku! Do you have the need to be so ruthless?" Zabuza asked his follower. "And take that stupid mask, there's no need to hide your face in my presence."

The boy took out his mask showing his beautiful face that had made him be mistaken for a girl most of the times, his brown eyes stared at the man. "Let me take the needles Zabuza-sama."

However before the boy reached to the needles, Zabuza took them out of his neck roughly. "I don't want you touching my body, who knows what you might do this time. "

"Zabuza-sama what are we going to do? Gato won't be happy with this." Haku stated, knowing that the two of them would be in trouble.

"To hell with Gato, He didn't pay me enough to go against ninja like Hatake Kakashi and if the copycat wasn't enough, there's that woman who says she is the Niiroi Arashi and if that isn't bad I just had to mess with her son." Zabuza said shaking his head. "Gato better pay me an extra or I'm out of this."

Haku noticed the tone of voice that his master used when he talked about the red headed woman. "Zabuza-sama, that woman is she dangerous?"

"If she is who she claims to be than you better believe she is. The Niiroi Arashi was an ANBU captain during the time of the third war, her team was nothing short of amazing, her name is still feared in Iwa because of the amount of ninja she killed from there, it's not as much as the Kiiroi Senko but still… But the worse is that it seemed I hurt her son, the blond kid. I Think I'm going to leave her for that bastard Daimaru and his two cronies." Zabuza really didn't want to face the wrath of an angry mother again. "Maybe they'll kill each other, I'm pretty sure the guy that says that fought against the Niiori Arashi and lived to tell the story would love to have a rematch."

"I see Zabuza-sama, but you're still hurt, it will be at least a week for you to heal completely those wounds, those cuts aren't deep but the rest of your body isn't that much good and you used quite the amount of chakra." Haku stated concerned for his master.

"Yeah it seems so, next time I'll get the old man count on it."

**-X0X-**

Reaching Tazuna's house hadn't taken more than a few minutes. The residence was a small two story house, made of wood. From the inside of the house came a black haired woman who seemed to be in her late twenties early thirties.

"Tou-san!"She said happily hugging Tazuna. "It's good to see you again safe Tou-san."

Tazuna grinned. "It's only thanks to these super kind ninja especially the one with red hair. She's super strong."

The woman bowed down to them. "I have to thank you for keeping my tou-san safe, my name is Tsunami by the way."

"No problem Tsunami-san, we were only doing what we were hired for." Kakashi told her. "Not trying to sound demanding but I wouldn't mind if we could enter your home, my team needs to rest, this day was eventful enough."

"Of course not… hum…" She stopped not knowing the man's name.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi and these are my students, the blond one is Uzumaki Naruto…"

"Hi!" The boy said in his cheerful tone.

"The black haired one is Uchiha Sasuke."

"Hn." The Uchiha nodded in the woman's direction.

"And finally the female of my team, the girl with pink hair is Haruno Sakura." Kakashi finished his presentation.

"Nice to meet you Tsunami-san." Sakura said smiling at the older woman.

Tsunami looked at Kushina for awhile to see if she was going to tell them her name.

The red head shook her head. "I'll tell you later, there's things I must talk about first before you know my name."

The other woman just nodded and invited them to enter her home.

Inside the house a kid with black hair met them, he was about 8 years of age, he was dressed in a beige turtle neck and green dungarees, in his head rested a white fisherman's hat with two blue horizontal lines.

"Jiji!" The boy cried when he saw his grandfather, the boy ran to him and gave the old man a big hug.

"Inari, it's so good to see you again." The man lifted the boy in the air.

"Hey gramps who are they?" The boy asked pointing at the strangers that were on his house.

"Them? They are these really super strong ninja that protected me!"The man stated proudly. "They are going to stay with us for a time, until I finish the bridge."

Hearing this made the boy frown. He looked at the ninjas and said. "You should go away, You'll never survive Gato if you stay here."

The three Genin looked at the boy strangely, before shrugging.

"Tazuna-san is there any place where I can have a conversation in private?" Kushina asked the man.

Tazuna nodded. "You can go to the forest, you can talk about whatever you want to talk without people listening in."

Nodding Kushina thanked the man. "Kakashi-kun, please let's take care of this, I can't hold this anymore, not without going crazy."

"Ok, Sasuke, Sakura, you two keep here, Naruto you come with us." Kakashi ordered.

"Why do we stay here while the dobe goes?" Sasuke asked not liking to be left behind.

"Because this is a private matter between the three of us, if I feel just one of you, there will be hell to pay." Kakashi said in a tone that left no doubts.

The two Genin didn't like the answer but they kept silent, it would be better not too upset their sensei right now.

**-X0X-**

Naruto, Kushina and Kakashi wandered in the forest for a little while, finally choosing a place deep in the forest where they could talk with no one interrupting them.

Kushina was really nervous, she was finally going to tell her son who she was, her limbs shaking in anticipation and fear, fear that her son would hate her, it would break her if he did and she would understand even if it completely killed her on the inside, after all she had left him all alone for nearly thirteen years.

She sat herself on a log, her hands opening and closing several times to try to take away the nervousness.

The moment of truth was closing in.

"Hum Koumyou-san, what did you want to talk about?" Naruto asked not expecting the shock he would receive in a few moments.

"Well I… hum…" She really didn't know how to tell him. "I… ah…" She was so nervous.

"I guess you should start with your name." Kakashi suggested.

Kushina nodded."My n-n-n-ame… i-s….U-u-uzumaki K-k-kushi-na." She stuttered in a voice above a whisper.

"Hum could you repeat again I didn't really catch it." Naruto said scratching his head in a sheepish way.

A shiver was sent ran through Kushina's whole body. She took a deep breath to calm herself again. "My name is Uzumaki Kushina." And again the nervousness hit her when she heard her son gasp.

"_U-u-zumaki? She said her surname is Uzumaki is she related to me? Is it just a coincidence? Why did she leave me alone if she is related to me?" _His head was thinking frantically for explanations.

"Are you related to me in any way or are our surnames just the same?" He asked wanting to know, if it was just a coincidence.

There it was the moment of truth, love or hatred.

Kushina's nerves were killing her, tears were starting to pool at the corner of her eyes. "Y-yes we are related to each other."

"_So we are related, jus how and why did you leave me alone, why is shealmost crying?" _He voiced his questions. "How are we related? Why did you leave me alone?"

It was that moment that Kushina started crying openly, she couldn't hold her tears anymore, they fell from her face like a waterfall. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't want too! But I had no choice. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." She continued telling her mantra while her tears fell, her hands were clenched on her lap, her head was down not looking at her son.

That mantra had been the same she had repeated on his apartment on his birthday.

"I never meant to leave you alone"

"We were supposed to be happy."

"I know you must hate me…"

"…but I love you."

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

Naruto looked at her whoever she was aunt, cousin, whatever she was really, she seemed to be really regretting it. Right now he didn't know if he should forgive her or not.

"Senpai, you have to tell him." Kakashi told Kushina. "You have to tell him, whatever happens after doesn't matter now, he deserves to know please tell him."

Kushina nodded. "I'm, I'm, I'm…" Her respiration increased speed.

"I'm your…"

"…mother…"

All Kushina heard was a gasp of horror. She knew what was to come next almost for sure, her son would shout at her, said he hated her for leaving him alone. She wouldn't be able to take It she knew it, but as Kakashi said he deserved to know.

Naruto gasped horrified to hear to what had been just heard. He took several steps back. His head telling him to run away from there, to scream at her, to say he hated her for leaving him alone.

His eyes were dull looking at the woman.

"_NO, NO she's got to be lying, my mother died during the attack of the Kyuubi!" _He shook his head looking at the crying woman.

He took some steps back.

Kakashi looked at the scene in front of him, Naruto hated his mother for what she had done. That would most certainly kill her.

"I'm so sorry for leaving you alone, but I just wanted to protect you."

"I understand…"

"…if you hate me…"

"I'm a horrible mother."

Kushina's tears kept falling from her eyes like a fountain, all her regret, her fear…

All her love.

Naruto clenched his fist. _"Why, WHY DID YOU LEAVE ALL ALONE? WHY?" _His mind once again told him to tell her how much he hated her, to run to scream, to get away from her.

But something stopped him from doing that.

He remembered words that Sandaime had once told him.

"_A mother is someone who loves her child above all else, even her life. A mother is capable of going to extremes for her child."_

The words rang through his head.

But what should he do?

Again more words of the Sandaime rang through his head.

"_One of the things I like the most in you is that you are incapable of hating anyone."_

"_Only someone with a heart as pure as yours could hold something like the Kyuubi back."_

"_What should I do?"_

Mind or heart? What should he follow?

Looking at the boy Kakashi could see him troubled struggling for an answer. He hoped his student made a good choice for both of them.

"I don't deserve you."

"I understand that you hate me…"

Kushina continued muttering.

Mind or Heart?

Mind or Heart?

Mind or Heart?

Mind or…

Kushina's tears kept falling, she knew what her son's decision was, she heard his fist clench. She heard him step back… away from her. Why didn't he just say it, so it could all be over. He hated her, so why didn't he just tell her that, tell that he didn't her, tell her to go away, to leave him alone. She knew what she had done and she deserved her punishment for being doing what she had done.

Naruto had his head lowered to now. He had reached a decision.

"_It's now!" _Kakashi took attention to what was going to happen.

What happened was definitely not what he was expecting.

Kushina expected her punishment to come.

Something did come.

She felt something hit her with so much strength on the stomach that she fell back to the forest floor.

Her eyes opened to get a last look at her son, a last look at him before her world ruined.

Her eyes opened and widened.

Her son was hugging her.

Naruto lifted his head to look at her.

He smiled.

"…Kaa-san…"

**-X0X-**

**A/N: Tadah it's do- XD, not done yet, just inserted this here so those who are in tears, ( if there is any) can calm down a bit.**

**Good**

**Let's go to the happy stuff**

**-X0X-**

It had been half an hour since Naruto had latched himself to his mother.

Only the two of them were there now, Kakashi had excused himself saying he needed to check on Sasuke and Sakura.

Naruto was sitting on his mother's lap, with his head resting on her chest almost like a baby.

"So you're saying that after you fell to that river you were in a state of coma for six years?" Naruto asked.

His mother nodded.

"After you woke in Kami knows what village, you didn't remember anything but your ninja training?"

Again his mother nodded.

"After three years of training to regain your skills, this person from your past appeared, that triggered your memories to come back. Piece by piece."

"…yes…"

"But wait there's more, there's an organization composed of missing-nins only, that want to extract the kyuubi from me, which would be a good thing if I didn't die on the process."

"Continue…"

"You didn't mean to leave me alone, but your come back to the village would cause a lot of commotion and possibly attract some of your enemies who would try to kill me. Also the reason why you must kill them all is because someone, possibly from Konoha leaked your identity, to your said enemies. And so you spent the next three years hunting them so we can be happy together like we deserved."

"Again…yes."

"Now reaching a conclusion, so you could know that I was safe you went to konoha to contact Kakashi-sensei, who had watched over me, while he was in ANBU. And the assh- I'm sorry the baka is actually Inu and never actually told me, even after being my sensei for three months."

"I think that covers all."

Naruto placed his hand on his head. "Uh man my head hurts!"

Kushina kissed his head as if it would ease the pain. "There all better, now I think we should talk about more common things."

"Like what?" Naruto asked his mother.

"What you like and what you don't like?" She explained to her son with a smile.

"Ah ok then I'll start… What's your favorite food?" He asked, somehow he thought the answer was quite obvious.

"Well my favorite food is salty ramen. What about you, what's your favorite food?" She knew she was being the queen of the obvious but she didn't care.

"It's ramen, of course and I also like red bean soup!"

Kushina nodded. "Now it's my turn, what are your hobbies?"

"Well I like to pull pranks…" He started but he was interrupted.

"Want to paint the Hokage Mountain when we get back at Konoha?" She asked quickly. "Oh sorry move on."

Naruto grinned at his mother. "Sure this time we'll give a whole new makeup. Now following I guess I like gardening and reading."

Kushina looked at her son with a raised eyebrow. "Reading! That's so boring, what do you read anyway?"

"Well there are these two books, the first is "The legend of the gutsy ninja" I really like that book, the book has a character with the same name as me you know, I want to be like that Naruto." He said with a grin.

"That was the reason me and your father gave you that name…" Her eyes widened when she said that, she didn't want to tell him who his father was for now, who knew what would be his reaction.

"My… father… who was he?" Naruto asked his voice low. "Is he alive too?"

His mother shook her head. "No he died during the attack of the Kyuubi… he died sealing it on you." She felt her son become deathly still on her lap. "Naruto?"

"My… dad… was the Yondaime?" The boy felt betrayed, he felt happy, he felt sad, he felt so many things.

"Yes, but don't think he didn't love you, he loved very much, he always talking how you be the greatest ninja ever and how fast you would learn his technique, that you would put him to shame. So please don't hate him." She told comforting her son.

Naruto hugged his mom. "Thank you, Kaa-san." He continued hugging her, before continuing their little bonding time. "What are your hobbies?"

"Well I like to pull pranks and chat." She said.

"Is there anyone else alive from our clan?" He was really hopeful about this, if his mother was alive then more people could be alive.

The boy's hopes were shot down a little. "Not blood related but…"

"But?"

Kushina sighed. "Your godfather is still alive."

"My godfather who is he?" The boy asked wanting to know more of his family.

"Have you ever heard of the name Jiraya?" She asked hoping not.

"Kind off, I think he was the writer of a book about the Yon- about tou-san."

"Yeah he's a writer, a good one, especially on his old stuff." She said with a funny look on her face. "But his new stuff his disgusting."

"New stuff?"

"Do you now the book Kakashi-kun is always reading that orange one? He writes those." Then after that she looked seriously at her son. "If I ever catch you reading one of those, you'll be on trouble young man."

The boy nodded furiously. "How old are you? When's your birthday?" He asked.

"Naruto You never ask a lady her age… 36, July 10." She answered him.

"What's your favorite color Naruto?"

"ORANGE!" He shouted from the top of his lungs. "And yours?"

"Orange too." Then she looked at him with mock seriousness. "Then why aren't you wearing orange?"

"Well you see I wanted too… but nee-chan told me it was too bright, it would make a target and that it was goofy." He looked down for a moment.

"Too bright…goofy… Orange is the coolest color ever! And we Uzumakis are protectors, being a target to protect our loved ones is an honor, aren't I right?"

"Damn right!" He shouted.

Mother and son shared a good hearted laugh.

"Now tell me how you feel about that girl, what was her name… ah yes Sakura."

They continued for some more time, with both of them asking various questions about each other. After that they decided to go back, their stomachs growling, asking for food or more specifically ramen.

**-X0X-**

The newly reunited Uzumaki walked hand in hand to Tazuna's house, when they entered all eyes were on them.

Both smiled at the ones that were inside.

"I've got a mother." Naruto said waiting for the others reaction to what he told them.

There was only silence for a while.

And then everyone but Kakashi exploded.

"WHAT!"

The Uzumakis laughed like no tomorrow at the shocked expressions.

"Yeah it's like he said Naruto here said, I'm his mother."Kushina looking fondly at her son. "After all these years we are together again."

"But why did you leave Naruto-kun alone all this time?" Sakura asked. Why a mother would leave her own son alone for so much time.

"Can't we talk about this later I'm starved." Naruto replied, his stomach agreeing with him.

"Of course I was just going to serve lunch sit down." Tsunami told them pointing to two vacant places on the table.

"Hum so will you tell us your name now Arashi-san?" Sakura asked again wanting to know his riend's mother's name.

"Uzumaki Kushina."

"And his father who was he?" The girl was very curious about her crush's family.

"Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage." Kushina told hearing the gasps of everyone.

"_He's the son of the Yondaime! Impossible, but why didn't anyone take care of Naruto, if he is Yondaime-sama's son." _Sakura's mind didn't want to believe in what was being said. **"I knew Naru-chan was special but this special! Kiss him now! It would be the perfect happy ending, finding about your family and then getting the girl you love… oh so dreamy…" **Sakura blushed at her inner's comments. _"He doesn't love me! I'm just a friend!And I don't want to ruin our friendship! What are you saying if he did he would have told me! Wouldn't he?" _Sakura argued back. **"Man are you thick headed…"**

"_The dobe is the son of the Yondaime? How can that be possible?" _Sasuke couldn't believe that his teammate was the son of two of the most powerful shinobi in the world.

"It still won't save you from Gato." Inari said with a frown on his face. How could this guy be like that, knowing he would be against Gato, the man didn't forgive anyone who defied him, these strangers didn't know anything.

Before Naruto could start an argument, Tsunami served the food she had been preparing. Remembering his stomach's condition the boy quickly forgot what the other boy had said.

Lunch was very good, everyone enjoyed the food and since the food was so good so was the mood, unfortunately it was going to be ruined by the bad news Kushina and Kakashi had.

In his seat Kakashi sighed knowing he was going to ruin the good mood his team was in. "Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Tazuna-san." He called their attention. Having it he proceeded. "Zabuza… he's still alive."

The four he had called gasped.

Sakura was the one who vocalized their question. "How can he still be alive Kakashi-sensei? Didn't that hunter-nin kill him?"

"I thought he did but he didn't. Do you remember what weapons he used?" He asked his students.

"He used senbon…" Sasuke replied. "Needles, Sakura you use them right? Can you do any kind deadly damage with them?"

"Not really, they are mostly used in vital points to cause numbness or disable limbs." She said thinking about the place where Zabuza had been hit. "He was hit on the neck, Anko-sensei never taught me what you could do if you hit the neck."

Kushina being the most experienced answered them. "Senbon aren't very deadly by themselves, but if you hit with enough strength you can cause an internal bleeding and ultimately kill someone and there is a places where you can hit to put your target in a death like state, like for example the neck. It was a slip of attention by my part and Kakashi-kun's but it won't happen again."

Kakashi nodded at her words."Yes your right Senpai, but there is a good thing out of this, Zabuza withstood a lot of damage, he'll be out for at least a week and that leaves us time to train, and also I'll be asking for reinforcements from Konoha."

"Reinforcements why's that Kakashi-sensei? Can't you and Kaa-san take care of Zabuza and that other ninja?" Naruto asked, why they would be asking for reinforcements when they had the advantage of numbers.

"That's partly the reason I'm here Naruto-kun. I came here to kill a former ninja from Iwa, his name his Yama Daimaru and if I know that Gato man, he'll send Zabuza, the hunter-nin, Daimaru and his two cronies to get us, so you see, our numerical advantage is blown off by their experience and power in greater nujbers, you three are still genin and they are at least chunin." Kushina informed them.

Sasuke clenched his fists and smirked, the prospect of more ninja to fight pleased him.

Sakura, nodded understanding they would need help from someone stronger, also she would stay by her team's side no matter what.

Finally Naruto grinned, he slammed his hands on the table. "Oh yeah! Let those guys come! We'll kick their asses no problem!"

**-X0X-**

**A/N: chapter 11 done with. **

**Review! Get it! **

**"**_**I'm telling you this because you don't get it. You think you get it, which is not the same as actually getting it. Get it?**_**" **

**Stay well, see ya.**

"T


	12. Preparations

**Chapter 12 – Preparations**

Mist covered the forest, making it very hard to spot anything. There hidden by the mist was a small house. No one had ever found this house mostly because of who occupied it, the house's occupants were normally ninja that Gato hired, the man gave this secluded place so they could rest without having to be disturbed by the other villagers, or at least it was what one missing-nin had told the man about living around with the common people.

Inside of the house's room where two people a man and a boy, the man was lying on the bed recovering his wounds while the boy tended to them. Three days had gone by since Zabuza's fight against the woman, his body was healing well and by the end of the estimated time he would be alright. His wounds were mostly cuts, the wind jutsu that the woman used had caused them, they weren't deep, no they were a lot, especially the last jutsus had done a nasty cut that would have been worse if the jutsu had hit Zabuza full force.

Haku had done the best he could, the cuts were healing alright but Zabuza needed to recover all of his chakra and that would take more time, Haku knew a certain herbal preparation that would help recover chakra faster, he would later go and retrieve the needed herbs to prepare it, but not now that his master was in the condition he was.

Gato still hadn't contacted them because of their failure, he would most likely do it soon, the presence of someone has strong as the Niiroi Arashi had complicated the things a lot more. Zabuza said he planned in having the other group of ninja that Gato hired dispose of the woman, but Haku had his doubts, someone who had fought his master like that was definitely strong and even more because the woman was protecting the blond boy, who was actually her son.

A gut feeling told Haku that maybe they couldn't defeat the woman after all people became truly strong when protecting what's important to them and there is nothing more important to a mother than a her own child.

"_We should just leave this job, the ninja from the other side are powerful and driven by positive emotions that make them stronger in leaps and bounds, we have nothing more than survival instinct making us fight. If we didn't need the money we would withdraw from the job like Zabuza-sama said, but we actually need it. Let's hope Zabuza-sama's plan does work and that man Daimaru fights against that woman. I don't like separating a mother from her child, but I will stand by Zabuza-sama no matter what." _Haku thought knowing there was a chance that their plan might not work. But from what Zabuza had told him about the Daimaru man, he would most likely jump at the opportunity of fighting against the red haired woman, still what would happen if she defeated him, would she come after them?

Zabuza looked at his student. _"Haku has been troubled for quite the time, something's on his mind and I don't know what it is. No matter like he said I should be up and running in a week's time, Gato won't be happy but to hell with what that asshole thinks, he didn't pay me enough to fight people of the caliber of the Niiroi Arashi. To think someone as strong as that was still alive and had a child, makes me wonder what kind of ninja the kid will be on the future. Being the son of a Kunoichi like that and I had to go and piss his mother off. It's like Haku say's someone becomes really strong when you are protecting someone important and nothing's more important than a child to the eyes of its mother, that's the first and last time I mess around with Konoha women. I wonder? Would Kiri be stronger if it followed guidelines like the ones of Konoha, maybe that's why they are the strongest ninja village of the great five, retaining their emotions and free will, can make someone stronger, can't it. Haku is always talking about the being strong when you protect someone important, I wonder how strong would he be if he was raised in Konoha, probably not very strong in the beginning but on the long run, he would probably end up being very strong." _Zabuza looked at his apprentice. _"Even thought I trained him to be a killing machine Haku shows openly his distaste, I now begin to wonder if I should have trained him like that. The boy clearly cares about my well fair, that much is certain, is that because I trained him or is it deeper than that? People's emotions aren't really my forte, having suppressed so much long ago in a way that not even the bloodiest of carnages faze me. Would I be stronger if I had someone important I would like to protect my life… Damn that Haku he's rubbing off on me too much." _The former Kiri ninja shook away his head trying to clear away his thoughts. _"I have to focus on my mission, my target is the old man, Getting through Hatake will be difficult has he have's that Sharingan of his, but getting through the Niiroi Arashi will be even harder, I'll need something to distract her and that Daimaru bastard and his cronies will do nicely! His pride will be his downfall… yes I just have to spike up the fire a little and everything will be alright. After that me and Haku will pick up our things and get away from here real fast, I don't want to face the wrath of another angry mother."_

Haku's and Zabuza's musings were interrupted by the entrance of six people on the room. The first ones to enter where Gato and two of his his thugs followed by three Iwa missing-nin.

"Zabuza! What the hell happened? You said you would get the job done." Gato shouted at the Kiri missing-nin.

"Shut up Gato you didn't hire me for shit like this!" Zabuza replied enraged, he gripped the kunai he had hidden under the bed sheets, if he could just kill the asshole.

"Shit what shit, you just had to kill an old man maybe a couple of kids and a more experienced ninja, but that's it!" Gato didn't like when people failed to accomplish his orders, he was paying them, but of course that didn't mean he would pay most of the times. Now as a skilled business man he knew that sometimes you have to trample even those that help you, that was the main reason he had hired Daimaru and his men, after Zabuza killed the old man he would order Daimaru and the other two to kill Zabuza and his apprentice.

"The old man would be easy to kill, if the jonin protecting him wouldn't any other that Hatake Kakashi or as he is more commonly known, Sharingan no Kakashi. Now a fight might have gone well to my side, but after that there were complications." Zabuza told his contractor wanting nothing more than gut him like a pig and watch him bleed to death.

"Complications? What complications?" The business man asked, he regretted having hired Zabuza, he should just asked Daimaru to kill the bridge builder. He had hired Daimaru and the other two to protect him, after an unknown ninja had slaughtered his thugs last year, since then he hadn't any contact with the Akatsuki.

Behind Gato a big man scoffed. Yama Daimaru was a tall man, with brown hair and eyes, he had a very muscular built, far bigger than normally ninja had. He was dressed in a brown vest, along with pants on the same color, his sandals were black, on his hands were black fingerless gloves, the one in the left hand was simple, where the one on the right hand had a spiked metal plate on the knuckle, on his left hip he had a small bag that contained whatever he used as a weapon, he carried no weapon pouches, his slashed Iwa hitei-ite was tied on his left arm.

"Hatake huh? He's powerful, but not that powerful, tell us what else happened that an assassin of your caliber failed his assassination." Daimaru was loving to see Zabuza in this condition, he didn't understand why Gato hadn't let him and his men take care of Tazuna.

"The one who put me in this state calls herself..." Zabuza was interrupted by Gato's screech.

"WHAT! You were defeated by a woman? You better have some good explanation for this or you're fired." Gato said trying to sound menacing.

"As I was saying the one who put me on this state calls herself the Niiroi Arashi." Zabuza let his words sink in especially on Daimaru.

"So what if she calls herself whatever she does, you didn't kill the bridge builder." Really Zabuza really wanted to kill Gato and the two thugs with him, they were sending him sneers that were starting to annoy him.

"You said the Niiroi Arashi, Tell me how is she? Did she have anything that could distinguish her from another ninja, hair color for example?" Daimaru was interested in this, it had been years since he had heard about her, he thought she would be most likely dead, not that he cared for her life, but knowing that she was alive awakened something in him. The desire to fight again.

"She had red hair and a scar running on her face, that's all I caught." Zabuza informed the other ninja.

"Red hair… that's her!" Daimaru smirked, he was going to get another chance at the Niiroi Arashi. "Is there anything else I should know off?"

Now it was time for Zabuza to smirk, if he played his cards right the bastard in front of him would be in deep trouble with the red haired Kunoichi.

Time to put his plan on the move. "There was this blond kid… She claimed that he was her son."

"She's got a son!... Heh maybe we can use him to get the bitch easier and maybe play a little with her before we kill her." One of Daimaru's cronies said with a maniacal smile on his face. He had short black hair and dark green eyes, his clothing consisted of a brown long sleeved shirt, dark brown pants and black sandals. His slashed hitei-ite was on his forehead, he had a weapons pouch and kunai holster in their regular places. His name was Koudo Bachiatari, he was a former Iwagakure Tokubetsu Jonin, specialized in earth and fire jutsus.

"Yeah that seems a nice idea and I could mess along with her head too." The other of Daimaru's cronies spoke. This one had dirt blond hair, and dark brown eyes, he was dressed in a brown tattered cloak along with a red scarf, his torso and forearms were bandaged, he like the rest of his partners had brown pants and black sandals, his name was Obutsu Rei, he was a Tokubetsu jonin, his specialty was genjutsu.

Hearing his partner's ideas pleased Daimaru, he couldn't wait to kill the woman and killing her own son in front of her would be glorious, he definitely would love what they were going to do. He closed his fists in anticipation.

"Yes you two are right this is going to be fun, I'll have a rematch with the Niiroi Arashi and then I'll make her see me kill her son in front of her before I kill her too." Daimaru's evil grin sent shivers up Gato's and his thugs spines.

"_Hook, line and sucker!" _Zabuza thought, the idiot had just fallen into his trick, he would go and have his fun, while he killed the old man. With luck, the guy would most likely get killed by the Niiroi Arashi and then he would kill her too when she grieved her son, that his if they killed the kid, but knowing those guys they probably wouldn't fail. He really pitied the kid, so young and already doomed.

"Hum… so how strong is she?" Gato asked not liking the idea of another obstacle.

"Between High A-rank and low S-rank, depending on how her skill is now." Daimaru informed his contractor. "Me and my partners are more than able to take on her and we even have a little psychological weapon to use on her." The man said thinking of our blond hero.

"When are you planning on attacking?" the business man asked wanting to know when he would finally control of all of Nami no Kuni. He was growing impatient with all the failed attempts to gain control over the country, once he had control over it he could use it as a shipping route for his drug dealing business and his other more shady business.

"As soon as Zabuza is ready to fight we'll go and kill them all." Daimaru announced, he didn't really like to rely in anyone else that his two cronies but with someone like Hatake Kakashi and the Niiroi Arashi he would have the need to keep those two separated from each other, if he was to succeed.

"Fine, do it but you can't fail or you guys are all fired." Gato replied leaving the place the room followed by his thugs and the three Iwa missing-nin.

Seeing them leave made Zabuza ease the grip in his kunai. _"Heh… those guys are really stupid." _He thought without knowing that maybe he too belonged in that category.

**-X0X-**

Shining brightly the sun elevated itself on the sky slowly, its light waking up the ones who slept with the help of several roosters who announced that people had slept long enough. Along the ones who cursed their call was Sakura, she twitched in her sleeping bag knowing it was impossible to escape the light of the sun.

Emerald green eyes opened slowly, scanning the place where she was, she was in the room Tsunami had given her and Naruto's mother. The room was sparse, it had a bed which she had insisted that the older woman occupied it, while she slept on the floor. Her crush's mother was a very interesting person to meet, she was much alike Naruto personality wise being just slightly calmer and both loved ramen with the same passion. Strength wise Sakura was flabbergasted by what the woman could do, yesterday the red haired woman and her sensei had a mock battle and Sakura had to say her sensei had his butt handed to him to put it bluntly. Naruto's mother had a good understanding of the works of jutsus and ninja related things, even medical ninjutsu, while the woman was not medic-nin she was definitely skilled, having trained under Tsunade herself for a few months, when she asked her why wasn't she a medic-nin the woman's answer was that she needed it to be able to heal her wounds but mostly her late lovers one's as he was very reckless, the red head stated that Naruto inherited that trait from his father.

Only Kushina and Tsunami were awake, Kushina seemed to be making something on the stove, she was humming a cheery tune while she cooked whatever she was cooking.

"Good morning." The girl greeted when she entered the kitchen.

Tsunami looked at her and greeted back smiling. "Hello Sakura did you sleep well?" The black haired woman inquired.

"She would sleep better if she actually slept on the bed." Naruto's mother said not taking her eyes from her task.

"I couldn't do that Kushina-sama! You benefit more from that bed than me!" The girl exclaimed.

Kushina shook her head in exasperation she had been telling the girl to don't call Kushina-sama, but the girl still kept calling her the same over and over again, it was admirable that the girl was polite, but she didn't need to be that polite, in the end Kushina guessed it was due to the way the girl was raised, even with that little flaw, Kushina adored the girl, she was kind hearted, courageous when she needed to be, smart and she loved how she was capable of keeping her son in check making him behave less idiotically. In terms of ninja skills she was very good too, her interest for learning various things and almost perfect chakra control gave the girl a lot of potential, also she liked the idea of pink haired grand-children. By the way the exclamation of the girl might have seemed like she was telling Kushina was old. The older woman smirked.

Stopping what she was doing, Kushina looked straight into the girls eyes. "Are you by any chance telling that I'm old?" Her voice was low and menacing. Kushina was only joking with the girl.

"I-I-I'm n-n-not, Kushina-sama." The girl replied nervously, not wanting to get in trouble with Konoha's second most powerful Kunoichi. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't meant to say it that way."

Still looking at the girl Kushina grinned at her. "I know I was just kidding around with you."

Sakura pouted a little. **"NOT FUNNY AT ALL RED!" **Inner Sakura shouted, she had started calling the older Uzumaki red because of her hair. Looking around the place Sakura found that the only way she could help was by cooking and that was something that Sakura couldn't do to save her life.

Noticing that the girl was standing just there, doing nothing when she was usually very helpful, Kushina motioned the girl to approach her.

"Kushina-sama?" The girl inquired wanting to know what the red haired woman wanted with her.

"Watch and learn." Kushina told her while she prepared whatever kind of food she was doing.

"Th-The-there's no ne-ed Kushina-sama!" Sakura said while waving her arms in front of her, she didn't want people to find that she couldn't cook.

"Oh come on we already suspect that you don't cook very well, but that doesn't means you can't improve. Don't give up until the end I say." Kushina smiled at the girl motioning her to approach her.

"Listen Sakura, every men are conquered by the stomach, if you can cook well you'll have them on the palm of your hand, but of course you don't need to know how to cook everything, some men only require that you know how to cook their favorite meal, like for example Naruto, if you know how to make good ramen you'll have him eating in your hands no problem." Kushina stated while she boiled various vegetables and the chicken to add the ramen.

Sakura blushed a little. "Naruto-kun?"

"Yes Sakura, Naruto is a simple guy, he doesn't need much." Naruto's mother said showing several tricks on how to cook good ramen. "You just have to be careful on how you cook, take attention to everything you do and everything will be fine."

**-X0X-**

/Town state scene/ Zabuza's death plotting/ Beginning of the bridge fight.

The sounds of punches where heard through the forest, at this time of the day, there wasn't enough noise so that the sound could be muffled.

The one behind these noises was none other than Sasuke, the boy was punching a tree mercilessly,

His mind was however not in what he was doing, but on Naruto and his mother, he couldn't believe that the blond had got his mother back, deep down he felt happy for the blond boy, but on other aspect he felt extremely jealous, Naruto had gotten something he Sasuke couldn't ever get back…. His family.

During the three days they had reached there he kept himself quiet, he didn't speak to anyone unless it was necessary, he hadn't been able to face Naruto, whenever he did thoughts of his broken family would haunt his mind, especially his mother… His mother, she was so kind to him and at the time all he thought was about training and pleasing his father, he regretted that, if he could be reunited with his mother he would spend every single moment with her, but he knew he couldn't and that was what made even more jealous of Naruto.

His training with Kakashi had mostly been about chakra control, Kakashi was teaching him the Water Walking exercise needless to say he was soaked a lot of times, the exercise required him to released and control the output of chakra, unlike the tree walking exercise in this one you had to release a constant amount of chakra and regulate it accordingly every time. What made Sasuke upset about this was that his teammates already knew this exercise, he was training extra hard so he could catch up with them.

Talking about his teammates, Sakura was running in his direction.

"Good morning Sasuke." She greeted the boy.

"Hn." The boy gave her his trademark phrase.

"_How I ever liked this guy is beyond me, he's such an ass." _Sakura thought restraining herself from hitting the Uchiha on the top of the head. **"Naru-chan is way better than him! Shannnaro!"**

"I'm just here to tell you that breakfast is ready." She told the arrogant boy with an uninterested voice, she didn't really care what he did, she was only doing what she had been told to.

Sasuke actually followed her back to Tazuna's house for breakfast.

**-X0X-**

Later at lunch everyone was reunited around the table discussing various matters, the one to go with Tazuna had been Sakura. She was currently telling Naruto how boring it was to watch over Tazuna while he worked on the bridge, her only supposed escape from the boredom was some of the medical scrolls she had brought with her from Konoha.

Naruto listened the girl he had a crush on, no scratch that he loved her, even if some people thought he was too young to know what love really was, he couldn't stop thinking about the pink haired girl, his dreams were already being filled with her and most of his thoughts too, his mother had told him that he loved her, but he wasn't so sure about what she felt about him, it didn't seem that she felt the same way and he didn't want to ruin the friendship he had with her, she was his best friend, her friendship was too precious to ruin.

Kakashi spoke to Tazuna to better deliberate ways of protecting the bridge builder, he was sure that Zabuza would attack in a week's time, his students had been getting training, but still they wouldn't be able to face the kind of ninja they would be facing, he hoped the reinforcements he asked would get there before the situation turned ugly.

Kushina and Tsunami chattered about various topics, being one of those raising a child, Tsunami gave Kushina various pieces of counsel, since the older women didn't have much experience, Kushina in turn told various of her stories from the Third Ninja war.

By this time everyone was wondering when their reinforcements would arrive and who would they be, the battle that awaited them was not going to be an easy one for sure as most of the enemy ninja were above C-rank and the ones on the side of Konoha were D-rank with the exception of Kakashi and Kushina, of course in the end they too would be in trouble if they had to fight to fight all those ninja by themselves, they all hoped the Hokage would send some strong reinforcements.

Lunch time flew by as everyone talked happily, when they were getting ready to leave and take care of their own business, a knock resounded on the door.

Tsunami went to the door to see who it was, while the shinobi inside the house reached for their weapons in case it was someone sent by Gato.

Opening the door what met Tsunami was not Gato's thugs but a red eyed woman along with three children who seemed to around the same age as the Genin in her house.

"Is there where Tazuna-san lives?" The red eyed woman asked.

Knowing the voice Kakashi lowered his weapon.

"Tsunami-san its okay those are the reinforcements I requested." Kakashi informed the woman. So the Hokage had sent Kurenai along with someone else.

"Oh ok… please enter, we just finished lunch, but I can get you something to eat if you want." Tsunami told the red eyed woman opening the door so she and her team could enter her home.

When Kakashi saw who came along with Kurenai he couldn't help but groan.

"Is everything alright Kakashi-san?" Kurenai asked to the masked jonin wanting to know why he had such a reaction to her and her team.

Kushina looked at Kakashi with a raised eyebrow. "You lied on your request didn't you?"

"Lie no, I just didn't tell the whole truth." The man stated, he really shouldn't have omitted certain things from the message he sent. "I didn't want to tell the Hokage you were alive and here."

"Thanks for your loyalty but what are we going to do now, you can't ask for more reinforcements or the Hokage will get suspicious." Kushina knew they were in a hold up still, a jonin which she didn't know the strength of and another team of Genn wouldn't suffice.

"We were the only ones who were available." Kurenai informed them not sounding very pleased. "This is a tracking team not a combat one like yours."

"We're a combat team?" Naruto asked turning to his sensei. "Is this true Inu-sensei?" He had started calling Kakashi Inu, much to the silver haired man's changrin.

However the answer didn't come from his sensei it actually came from his mother. "They don't tell the kind of team you belong? Oh for the love of Kami! What are they teaching you kids in Konoha? Listen Naruto your team is a Heavy Combat team, this team here is a tracking team and the other one I do not know since it's not here."

"Heavy combat?" Naruto asked confusedly.

"Yes, You team is supposed to be a team focused in frontline combat, during a war you guys would possibly be some of the first to be sent to the front lines." Kushina knew her son wouldn't like being told this.

"Wait then you means we are being trained to be cannon fodder!" The boy exclaimed, his two teammates nodded not liking to know their team description.

Naruto's mother let out a dry laugh. "No you're not being trained to be a cannon fodder, you're being trained to be a death squad if you want to put it that way, I was a part of such a squad when I was younger and so was Kakashi-kun. Out of all the teams you will be the ones that will probably make ANBU first, of course only if you accept to become one." Her son looked at her strangely.

"Accept to become ANBU?" He asked once again.

"Yes when you're deemed good enough to become an ANBU operative, you are asked if you want to join, let's just say that the missions the ANBU get aren't for everyone. Your father for example didn't accept to become an ANBU, he said that those missions weren't really his style. Too much death he said." Naruto's mother finished informing her son.

"Yeah that's cool and all, but could you guys not Ignore us, were right here you know." Kiba stated looking at his fellow Genin.

Sakura and Naruto scratched the back of their heads. "Sorry Kiba!" they told the Inuzuka.

The brunette shook his head.

"Man, my friend and my own cousin, how did this happen." Kiba muttered shaking his head. "If trouble back at home wasn't already bad now there's a mission that's not that good for my team."

"What's happening back at home Kiba?" Sakura asked her cousin.

Kiba grinned sadly. "Tou-san and Kaa-san got in a row… again, Kaa-san said some pretty mean stuff and Tou-san left home, I haven't seen him in two weeks now." He informed with a sad voice, betraying how much he already missed his father. Kiba like any Inuzuka was very attached to his family and friends, specially his father who he idolized.

"So you haven't seen Uncle Shiro, have tried to talk to my Kaa-san?" Maybe her uncle had gone to her mother, Sakura thougt.

Kiba shook his head negatively. "I haven't looked for him there."

"Excuse but do you don't mean Inuzuka Shiro do you?" Kushina entered the pre-teens conversation.

"Yeah we do, do you know my father?" Kiba asked he didn't know this woman, he wondered who she was.

Kushina nodded. "Inuzuka Shiro was on my ANBU squad along with his partner Shiromu." She explained the boy. "He along with me and Uchiha Mikoto, where one of the best squads in ANBU if not the best of them all."

Sasuke looked at the woman. His mother had been in ANBU along Naruto's mother? He never knew that his mother had been in ANBU. "Why did you disband?" He asked the woman wanting to know more about his mother.

"Well your mother got pregnant four years before the end of the war." Kushina explained the last Uchiha.

"Ok you guys are here so, now we have to estipulate, who guards Tazuna-san during this week." Kakashi announced much to the displeasure of everyone.

**-X0X-**

It had been stipulated that Team 7 and Team 8 would rotate guard shift each day. Today it was Team 8's turn, so team 7 used that day used that day to get some training done, once again Sasuke had trained like no tomorrow, even using the nights to train, so now he woke in the middle of the forest. Opening his eyes he saw that there was a squirrel on top of him, shooing it with his hand he got up.

Near him was a girl, with long black hair gathering herbs, or at least Sasuke thought it was a girl, the individual used a pink kimono along with a black choker at its throat.

"Hello there!" The girl greeted smiling to Sasuke. "What are you doing here?"

Sasuke looked at her, she didn't seem to be dangerous. "Training."

"Training are you a ninja?" She asked him curiously, pointing at the boy's hitei-ite.

"Yeah." That was all the boy said.

"I see so you want to be strong, why do you want to be strong?" The girl asked him.

He didn't know why but he felt he could trust this girl. "There's someone I want to kill, he's very strong, I need to be stronger than him if I want to my revenge on him."

"Revenge? That's not a good a reason to become strong you know, You'll never become that way, only when protecting something important to you will you become truly strong." The girl said in knowledgeable tone. "Do you have anyone important who you want to protect."

The last Uchiha kept silent. Did he have anyone important to protect? Did he have a good reason to become stronger? Why did Naruto's and Saskura's faces keep popping up on his mind? "I don't think so." He finally said.

The girl nodded. "I see, you won't become strong the way you are now, but everyone deserves a second chance, I'm sure you will able to get people you care about and that day will be the day when you will become truly strong because you have something worth fighting for, You'll have a good reason to become stronger. Think about what I said." The girl got up. "Well I'm done."

"What's your name by the way?"

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"I'm Haku, nice to meet you, Good bye."

**-X0X-**

Night came on the Island, making people retract into their homes, at Tazuna's house the same was done, the house was now very full, having 12 people occupying it, the food according to Tsunami wasn't a lot but they could at least have decent meal.

Once again everyone chatted happily, everyone except Sasuke and Inari. The small boy didn't understand how they could talk so carefree knowing they would be going to fight against Gato.

"How can you be like that? How can you just laugh, like nothing is going to happen, HOW?" The shouted to the ninja, how could they be just like that. "You're going to fight against Gato, you don't stand a chance, you're going to die."

Everyone stopped talking and looked at the boy.

"He killed my father!" The boy cried. "What makes you think you stand a chance against him. You'll die; Gato won't show mercy on you."

Looking at the boy Naruto snorted. "We're ninja, not cowards, we have a mission to fulfill and that's what we're going to do. You can go and run for all I care, but I'm going to fight."

"What do you know, do you know the pain we've been through! You smile like an idiot! Do you know what pain truly is!" The boy shouted at Naruto.

Suddenly the mood o the room became somber.

"Pain? Don't talk about pain like that, you know nothing about me or what I've been through, how would you feel if everyone hated you, how would you feel knowing people would rather see you dead, how would you feel if you grew up alone, without anyone to hold you or to cheer you up when your alone huh?" Naruto told Inari in a dark tone. "Don't talk about pain until you truly felt it, I know you're hurt by Kaiza's death. But do you really think he would be proud of you?"

"Of course he would I'm surviving and that's what matte-"

Naruto interrupted the boy. "No he would be disappointed in you and how you've become, you have become a coward. Nothing else." Naruto raised his ungloved hands showing his hands. "Do you see these fists, with them I'm going to fight Gato and anyone he throws at me, live or die, I'm going to fight anyway it's my mission to protect your grandfather, also I can't let someone like Gato rule, what kind of Hokage would I be If I let someone like Gato do what he's doing. I won't back down. You can trust me to do that."

Inari's tears fell down from his face.

Getting up from the table Naruto left the kitchen and went out.

His mother went after him.

**-X0X-**

"Naruto are you alright?" His mother asked him when she found him sitting at the same place where she had revealed herself as his mother.

The boy looked at her. "This place as lost its hope hasn't it?"

His mother nodded. "Yes it has it seems Gato influence caused to much prejudice among the villagers. The death of their hero as affected them a lot it seems. Tell me Naruto do you resent me for what I did?" She asked.

"I don't I already told you that, but all that happened can't be forgotten, those memories are what fuel my determination, they're that give me strength to become Hokage, Konoha will one day acknowledge me." Naruto with a determined voice. "This place as lost its faith in heroes…"

Kushina hugged her son. "Yes it has. Do you have anything in mind?" She asked her son wanting to know what he was planning.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah… I'll show them that Heroes still exist, I'll show them that they should never bow down to tyranny…"

Naruto was pulled into a deeper embrace. "I'll help you…"

"Thanks… Kaa-san…"

**-X0X-**

**A/N: Guys sorry for this whole mess but I wanted something more in this chapter, still I was able to post it today, anyway thanks for enduring this and sorry.**

**Review or flame if you feel like it.**

**Whirlpool-Maelstrom.**


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